So hard to agree with the Right, however hard I try

It’s difficult finding common ground with the political right. Even when I agree with one of their cardinal principles, I find they don’t agree with it themselves.

The principle is question is the one they refer to as ‘small government’. As I’ve pointed out before, it was most eloquently summarised by a radical of the left, supporter of the revolutions  in America and France, Tom Paine: ‘That government is best that governs least.’

Tom Paine: would have supported the Boston Tea Party,
but probably not the modern variation

I feel the wisdom of this view all the more strongly the closer any of the alleged supporters of ‘small government’ get to power. Michele Bachmann proclaiming to Americans that hurricanes are warnings from God to Obama to reduce the deficit. Rick Perry asserting the right of the United States to launch pre-emptive wars. Yep. If they ever get anywhere near government, I’d like it kept as small as humanly possible.

But do these people actually favour small government themselves? After all, Rick Perry launched his presidential campaign with a prayer meeting. He and Bachmann seem deeply committed to governing with God.

How much bigger can you get than that?

Over this side of the pond, the ‘small government’ lot are in office right now. In the aftermath of the recent street disturbances, David Cameron called for powers to shut down Twitter and Facebook at times of trouble.

One of the more remarkable reactions to the looting was the great cleanup in Clapham the following day. It was organised through Twitter. Had Cameron’s approach been adopted at that time, this highly positive response wouldn’t have been possible.  

Sadly, the momentum seems to be going out of Cameron’s initiative, as it has out of rather a lot of others in the past (selling off Forestry Land, reorganising the NHS, sucking up to Murdoch). Still, he probably thought it was a good idea because of how much better life is in countries where governments can shut down bits of the internet at will. Like China. Or Iran. Or North Korea.

In what sense, though, would it keep government small?

Postscript: a woman’s right to choose and everyone’s right to know

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries and Labour MP Frank Field are pushing a parliamentary measure to force women considering a termination of pregnancy, to get counselling first from an organisation that is not involved in the performance of the abortions themselves.

This would sound sensible if, say, those organisations had some financial interest in maximising the number of abortions they carry out. They are, however, charities with no such incentive. And most of the organisations who might provide the ‘independent’ counselling seem to be aligned with the anti-abortion movement.

But just who are they?

Difficult to tell. Asked to reveal who was backing the campaign for her measure, Dorries wasn’t prepared to say.

Curious, isn’t it, given that the campaign calls itself the ‘Right to Know’.

Weather alert

We may be facing stormy times at work.

Not that things have taken a downturn or anything. On the contrary, we’ve had an extraordinary year so far, to the extent that we’re all rushed off our feet. So it was a relief to hear that we were recruiting new people and, what’s more, some of our colleagues from abroad were coming over to lend us a hand for a while too.

The first to arrive was Irene from the States. She turned up just as the hurricane called after her was ravaging the east coast of her country. Obviously, it would have been in terribly bad taste to make jokes about whistling up a storm or showing the energy of a whirlwind. I’m well known for my restraint in these matters, so you can be sure I resisted the temptation to make such comments. Or at least to make many of them.

Now Katya from Ukraine is about to come over too – and, blow me down (if you’ll excuse the pun), but tropical storm Katia has just been upgraded to a hurricane too.

Katya's heading for London

What are we to make of all this? Michele Bachmann, worthy successor of Sarah Palin in both intellect and ambition, recently described the earthquake and hurricane that afflicted Virginia as a sign from God of his disapproval of the actions of the Washington administration. It seems that the Lord isn’t happy about Obama’s failure to tackle the debt crisis and found no better way of showing his displeasure than to damage a lot of houses, injure a great number of people and leave 24 of them dead, even though none of them had anything much to do with the US debt crisis as far as I can tell.

Bachmann has since assured us she was just joking, but I’ve never really trusted people who have to tell me they’re joking. I find the wit of people far funnier if I can appreciate it without having it pointed out to me. And, in any case, knowing and loving Michele as we do, does anyone believe her?

Anyway, with Irene and Katya due to storm around our offices next week, I’m sure Michele would have some interesting homilies to share with us. If only we could bring ourselves to listen.


Unrelated postscript: someone came knocking at the door today.

‘I’m not a salesman,’ he assured me, which immediately told me he was, though perhaps not a terribly good one.

‘My colleagues are just going around offering people free quotations on work they could have done on their houses.’

Just the quotation was free, you notice, not the work.

Perhaps he really wasn’t a very good salesman. Certainly if the measure of a good salesman is winning the order. This prospect wasn’t buying.