We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason,
why gunpowder treason,
should ever be forgot!
– Traditional English, sung on 5th November.
I wonder if in the future, the ‘Guy’ burnt in effigy on the bonfires around Britain on the 5th November will be known by the name of other more recent traitors, as a ‘Chris’ or a ‘Ted’1 rather than a ‘Guy’.
Rest in peace, Guy Fawkes… the only honest man to ever enter Parliament.
Eurosceptic views are not a new thing in Britain
1 = Thanks to Patrick Crozier for the link
I didn’t think it would happen quite this quickly but it does appear as if the much-predicted disintegration of the British Conservative Party is now well and truly underway.
It has been brewing for a while. The party is riven with squabbling factions such as traditionalists versus modernisers, pro and anti-EU, liberal versus authoritarian and mercantilist versus free marketeers. No party can long survive, let alone thrive, the eruption of that many running sores. Had they had the benefit of a leader strong enough to unite them (in the way that Tony Blair has managed to stamp his authority on the equally fractious Labour Party) then they may have pulled off a revival-trick but I was not alone in believing that Iain Duncan Smith was not that leader. And so it has proved.
On the face of it, the crisis issue (whether to allow non-married couples to adopt) hardly qualifies as the kind of major rock on which political ships could be expected to flounder. More likely, it has been siezed upon by a posse of the discontented as the means of launching an ‘intifada’.
It is always possible that the Tories will pull off some sort of miracle and survive as a major political party of state but I am doubtful for they are not just batting against an unassailable Blair or their own brittle consensus; they are also the first high-profile victims of the radically changing political fabric of Britain and the increasing disconnect between the public and established politics.
So, I think the end is near for the Tories as we have known them and that leaves New Labour in the role of ‘the establishment’ to be challenged.
But, by who or what? That’s the real question.
Who reads comments on Samizdata postings long gone? The writer of the original posting does because Perry sends them to us, so I read this one, from Chloe (of this blog), yesterday, about a posting whose only previous comment had been five days earlier. I had said that blogging is nicer, by its nature, than email chat-rooms. But Chloe said:
I see a difference between chat rooms, e-mail discussion lists, message boards, and blogs. I think it has to do with how easy it is to use the thing, and that reflects the mentality.
However, I believe if you haven’t read a blog you hate, you haven’t read many blogs.
Certainly there are rat-blogs out there. PLENTY of them. So many I hear of a new one every week.
But I guess it just depends on if you agree with it, or disagree with it. Maybe the hateful rat-blog I can’t stand would be the comraderie-laden paradise you love.
It’s all about perspective.
I sit corrected. However, here is further proof of just how subtly nice bloggers can be, when they’re trying to be. → Continue reading: Blogs across the sea
The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.
– Frédéric Bastiat
When I heard on ITV that a car blew up in Yemen, killing six al Qaeda, I just knew it had to be! According to CNN my best hopes have been confirmed:
“Video from the scene in Yemen’s oil rich Marib province showed the car blown part, with most of it reduced to black ash in the desert.”
You just can’t take those damned al Qaeda anywhere without them making a complete ash of themselves!
“Sources identified one of the dead as Abu Ali, also known as Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, a former bin Laden security guard who was believed to have played a major role in the October 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole that killed 17 sailors.
Walid Al-Saqqaf, managing editor of the Yemen Times, told CNN that Ali was identified by a mark on his leg, which was blown off in the blast and found nearby. “
Yep, that’s him all over…
I wonder when they’ll bring out a new Looney Tunes series? I’ve got this image in my head of Elmer Fudd getting help from a wascally wabbit for the al Qaeda Season… more fun than duck or rabbit or deer season, and no limits on how many you bag!
I don’t often base my postings on comments but this one in conjuction with yesterday news was asking for it. A comment on the famous ‘1984 Poster’ article left by lawyer Martin Pratt goaded us:
Oh, and street crime in London is down 30% from last year. Don’t see you rushing to post anything about that.
One reason for responding to Mr Pratt’s otherwise unremarkable comments is that he claims to have worked for the Crown Prosecution Service (the UK equivalent of Office of the District Attorney). I suppose that was to give him an air of authority or at least credibility when venting his frustration with Samizdata and the posting. It didn’t work then and certainly not after reading about a report that confirmed what everyone in Britain apart from former CPS lawyers has known for quite some time – the crime is rising and the massaged official statistics are plainly wrong!
The report, compiled by the think-tank Civitas and based on Home Office research, much of which is unpublished, discloses that the official total severely underestimates the real level of crime. The last survey showed about 13 million offences a year. The true level of crime is four times higher than official figures have previously shown with more than 60 million offences committed each year in Britain.
David Green, the author of the report, identifies the underlying problem:
…many, if not all, statistical reports are still being submitted to ministers for approval of their content and the timing of their release. In an open society, there is no justification for the involvement of party politicians in regulating public access to information. Inevitably they use their control of the flow of facts to gain advantage over their opponents.
The intriguing bit about it is the note at the end of the report: Civitas wishes to record its thanks to the Home Office for checking and confirming the accuracy of the comparisons between the BCS and recorded crime. This is because the head of the Home Office crime statistics unit, has seen the figures used by Civitas and has confirmed that they are accurate, saying that he is “content” with the report’s findings.
Watching them lie to us
It takes a former Russian dissident to stand up to the BBC, no offense to Natalie Solent who has been collecting evidence of their biased reporting, but she can’t beat Mr Bukovsky’s dedication. In the true dissident tradition Vladimir Bukovsky said yesterday that he was prepared to go to jail in protest at the BBC’s lack of impartiality, particularly towards the subject of Europe. He plans a mass civil disobedience to protest against being forced to pay the £112 licence fee accusing the BBC of being both “sub-standard” and “politically biased” on many issues, including the Conservative party, Israel and the question of Europe.
The BBC insisted yesterday that everybody who owns a television must possess a valid television licence.
Sixty year old Mr Bukovsky defected to Britain after more than 10 years in labour camps and psychiatric hospitals. I guess he is qualified to spot the bully…
In a real democracy, the relationship between the media and the governing elite is that of a pack of rottweilers maintaining surveillance on a gang of burglars. In Scotland, it more closely resembles the relationship between the Brigade of Guards and the sovereign.
– Gerald Warner in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday quoted in Freedomandwhisky.
Election day is upon us and those of you who live in Taxachussetts have an incredible opportunity: YOU can end your State Income Tax and keep your hard earned $3000 a year out of the greedy and wasteful hands of the crooks who govern you.
Vote YES on Proposition 1 to end the Massachusetts income tax.
If you have found the two turkeys the Democrats and the Republicans are running for Governor simply too much alike and too much to stomach: VOTE YES for Carla Howell.
You might even consider voting straight Libertarian, but whatever you do:
Get yo’ ass out there and VOTE YES on Proposition One!!!!
(Early) this morning on Brian’s Education Blog I mentioned my unease about links to electronic newspaper articles that may, but may not, remain linkable-to. (I reproduced great gobs of an independent.co.uk piece, maybe superfluously.) John Ray (of this – which is a link that is likely to go on making sense for the foreseeable future) sent me this email:
I share your concern about linking to articles on sites run by newspapers. My solution is to put up on a separate site copies of articles that I think might “disappear”. See: www.foxhunt.blogspot.com.
I’d be particularly interested in comments on this matter. (For these purposes I suggest we treat the shambles that is the blogger/blogspot/whateverit’scalled archiving system as a separate issue.)
Much is made by bloggers of the notion of the “blogosphere”. We bloggers understandably focus on the distinction between a “blog” and a “not blog”. (See for example the critical comments on this Samizdata piece I did – and let’s all hope that that link still makes sense in five years time! – about what is apparently a “not blog”.)
But I believe that a more fundamental distinction is the one between all the stuff that is available at one press of one button (i.e. linkable to), for ever, and all the stuff that will perhaps not be available for ever, at one press of one button, either because it never was in the first place, or because, having dangled it in front of us all for a few months, the danglers are then instructed by their accountants and/or lawyers to put the stuff behind a registration and/or money wall.
John Ray’s solution seems unwieldy, and also vulnerable to small-print-wielding lawyers forcing him (or someone) to take the stuff down from his special site.
I’m not querying the right of electronic newshounds to behave like this – not in this posting anyway. (It’s costing them money to write these pieces, and our plan is that eventually we spoil their on-paper circulation numbers, right?) I’m merely wondering what we can do (that we have and will go on having a legal right to do) about it, in such a way that keeps all our postings making sense.
Because Perry de Havilland‘s solution – quote great gobs of the original piece thereby making the link less crucial – is not perfect either.
That’s the good news:
Survey: Big Business Eager to Hire Bloggers
(2002-11-03) — A new survey of Fortune 500 companies reveals that 81 percent are eager to hire weblog writers (called bloggers) at substantial pay rates. Many bloggers currently spend hours each day reading news and writing views. …
This new study, by the Center for the Promotion of Income for Bloggers (CPIB), found that many corporations are awakening to the value of having a “staff blogger.”
The bad news is … it’s Scrappleface. Thanks for the link to Instapundit, who also steers the blogosphere to those party photos below. I was genuinely excited, almost as if I was back at the party (I’m the one with the yellow British teeth). But then I read:
“Big business has begun to realize the need to have someone on staff who can express open hostility with cutting wit and a generous helping of obscenities,” according to the CPIB news release. “Of course, these qualities have been in rich supply within most organizations for years, but their expression has been reserved for private emails, and restroom stalls. Now, companies are willing to pay, and pay well, for these bitter screeds.”
The CPIB study was underwritten by income from a Pay Pal “tip jar” on its web site. The statistical margin of error is plus or minus 100 percent.
Well, you never know. There’s many a truth that started its career as a jest.
Have reports of Turkish westernisation been greatly exaggerated?
It appears that an Islamist Party is now in the hot seat following yesterday’s election.
Looks like various plans in various War Rooms may now have to be hastily redrawn.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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