The Virtual Stoa

The BBC has a handy list of who’s resigning from the Government and when.

Monday
16:17GMT - Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook resigns after a meeting with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. He said: “Neither the international community nor the British public are persuaded that there is an urgent and compelling reason for this action in Iraq.”

Tuesday
07:00GMT - Lord Hunt of Kings Heath announces his resignation as junior health minister on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, saying: “At the end of the day I don’t support this action and it would be hypocritical for me to stay in government.”

11:11GMT - Home Office Minister John Denham resigns saying: “I cannot support the government in tonight’s vote.”

11:39GMT - Bob Blizzard, Labour MP for Waveney, resigns as Private Parliamentary Secretary to work and pensions minister Nick Brown.

11:56GMT - Anne Campbell, Labour MP for Cambridge, resigns from her role as Private Parliamentary Secretary to Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for trade and industry.

Any minister or PPS who resigns will be comemmorated on the Roll of Honour over on the right hand side of the Virtual Stoa, at least for a bit.

In Memoriam Karl Marx, died one hundred and twenty years ago in London, 14 March 1883. For Friedrich Engels’s graveside oration, click here.

Peering into the archives for the odd search strings which bring people to the shores of the Stoa…

josip broz car auction
domus aurea esquiline
anecdote about Kim Jong Il
daily mail mosley
bob marshall andrews [a few of these]
HUGH O’SHAUGHNESSY
“ari fleischer” satan
Ashcroft singing
thatcherweb
essay on the leopard by visconti
Ben M’hidi Battle of Algiers
italian word for troll
historian Christopher Hill
J. K. Rowling address
read my lips George Bush Tony Blair
iraq german students against the war
coordinated readings Aristophanes Lysistrata
Woyzeck mpeg
sealions war against terror

and, of course,

free zoo sex clip archive

So, all in all, a bit more highbrow than usual. It’s the first one which puzzles me the most. And I really don’t think the US military should be sending sealions into combat.

I’ve been rereading some of Kant’s political essays. As ever, the footnotes are tremendous.

“What is an absolute monarch? He is one at whose command war at once begins when he says it shall do so. And conversely, what is a limited monarch? He is one who must first ask the people whether or not there is to be a war, and if the people say that there shall be no war, then there will be none. For war is a condition in which all the powers of the state must be at the head of state’s disposal.

“Now the monarch of Great Britain has waged numerous wars without asking the people’s consent. This king is therefore an absolute monarch, although he should not be so according to the constitution. But he can always bypass the latter, since he can always be assured, by controlling the various powers of the state, that the people’s representatives will agree with him; for he has the authority to award all offices and dignities. This corrupt system, however, must naturally be given no publicity if it is to succeed. It therefore remains under a very transparent veil of secrecy.”

[From The Contest of Faculties, pp.186-7, Kant, Political Writings, ed. Reiss, 1991.]

As he goes on to explain, before we come to live under a suitable republican constitution, “it is the duty of monarchs to govern in a republican (not a democratic) manner, even although they may rule autocratically. In other words, they should treat the people in accordance with principles akin in spirit to the laws of freedom which a people of mature rational powers would prescribe for itself, even if the people is not literally asked for its consent.”

A question for regular VS readers (and others): Will Blair still be PM this time next month?

While on the subject of resignations, I’m sorry to see that Ron Davies has announced he’s not going to seek re-election as a member of the Welsh Assembly.

I met him a couple of years ago when he came to talk to the British Politics seminar here at Magdalen, and he was delightful, interesting and far more intelligent and articulate than most of the politicians who attempt to govern us. A great shame.

We have the first resignation from the Government… Well, sort of, since Parliamentary Private Secretaries come pretty low down the food chain. But it is the first resignation — the first of many, we hope — and that’s something to be happy about.

Click here after noon tomorrow for Comrade Reed’s official resignation statement.

Alexandra Kollontai, born in St Petersburg, 31 March 1872, died in Moscow, 9 March 1952. Old Bolshevik.

N.B. Some are asking, incidentally, why the DSW didn’t mark Stalin’s fiftieth the other day, since he’s a rather important Dead Socialist. (As one correspondent asked: “Was his exclusion from the Dead Socialist Hall of Infamy an editorial guillotine, or have I been misinformed and in fact he saw a few more days of March than I appreciated?”) Well, I forgot. He was on my list, but sometimes I don’t get round to posting anything. Given the degree of coverage in the mainstream press, you probably didn’t need the DSW to be reminded of the anniversary. Those who asked, in fact, demonstrated they didn’t need it by the fact of their asking.

I thought that my excellent friend and comrade Martin O’Neill was having a good day, as he beavers away on the metaphysics of egalitarian justice, or whatever it is that he does these days.

Ireland beat France 15-12 in a closely-fought Six Nations international.

Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 in the Scottish Premier League.

Arsenal were 2-1 up against Chelsea in the FA Cup, with a splendid goal from Thierry Henry just before half time.

[If he cares about any other sports teams, I’m not sure I know about it. Actually, I don’t know that he cares about the rugby, but he tends to like Ireland doing well at things, so I’m making an intelligent guess].And on top of all this, he tells me, it’s his birthday.

But then Chelsea equalised a few minutes from the end and forced a replay.

It’s fifty years since Tom Lehrer made his first recordings.

“I’m not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn’t figure out what sort of song I would write. That’s the problem: I don’t want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.” …

From an excellent article in a recent edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.

More dead socialists tomorrow. Today’s anniversary by contrast focuses on an almost-dead anti-socialist, since it’s the 20th of Ronald Reagan’s celebrated “evil empire” speech.

Avoid the tyranny of the soundbite and read the whole thing here.

The entire (post-cull) Magdalen herd, just below my window, ten minutes ago.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer was in fine form last week:

Q: Ari, just to follow up on Mexico. Is it true that the administration is willing to give Mexico some sort of immigration agreements like amnesty or guest worker program, to assure the Mexican vote, as the French press is pointing out today and is quoting, actually, two different diplomats from the State Department?

MR. FLEISCHER: No, it’s exactly as I indicated, that we have, on this issue, a matter of diplomacy and a matter of the merits. We ask each nation on the Security Council to weigh the merits and make a decision about war and peace. And if anybody thinks that there are nations like Mexico, whose vote could be bought on the basis of a trade issue or something else like that, I think you’re giving — doing grave injustice to the independence and the judgment of the leaders of other nations.

Q — the French press is quoting actually two different diplomats from the United States State Department that — they’re highlighting that the United States is giving some sort of agreements or benefits to Colombia — and other non-members of the Security Council –

MR. FLEISCHER: I haven’t seen the story. And you already have the answer, about what this will be decided on. But think about the implications of what you’re saying. You’re saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition. (Laughter.)

Today’s Observer, by contrast, carries not only a useful summary of the carrots and sticks being waved around as various world leaders “weigh the merits”, but also an exposé of the American phone-tapping of UN delegations on the other.

I’ve finally got off my arse and installed an automated comments facility. Now to find out whether it works.

On Monday 3 March there will be (at least) eight hundred and ninety-two public readings of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata all around the world.

Friends and colleagues will be taking part in the Oxford instantiation of this phenomenon, which will take place at Balliol College at 7.30pm, using the Tony Harrison text. Do come.

While I’m on the subject, Virtual Stoa readers in Oxford might like to remember to sign the antiwar petition, which will close on Wednesday. Students go here; staff here.

UPDATE [8.3.2003]: The Oxford Lysistrata was excellent, and Katha Pollitt’s coverage of events in New York in The Nation is here.

This just arrived:

Dear Sir,

I just came across your website and noticed how energetic and determined you are to try and make this world a more safer and peaceful one, but my friend, this is just not possible. Please Don’t be Preoccupied by trying to undo what has already happened in eternity past. The Bible tells us that man has an evil and incurable heart, (Jer 17:19 & Hebrews 3:12). We sadly live in a fallen world. - Satan’s world. Only the second coming of Jesus Christ, can and will, transform this world forever!

Whether there is war in Iraq or not is irrelevant, for the Lord Jesus spoke about this in Matt 23:6 ” And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things will must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are beginning of sorrows”.

As for the Palestine problem, well this will never be solved until Jesus returns. Please see what the Prophet Zechariah 12:2-4 wrote in 520 BC concerning Israel and her enemies before the Second Coming: “Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. “And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all the people; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”

Please don’t take offence to this e-mail, but the future has already been and gone as far as God is concerned. All men must be born again, John 3:3, if they are to enter the kingdom of heaven. May I leave you with this verse from Hebrews 9:27, it is appointed unto men once to die and after this, the judgment.

May God bless you richly.

Yours in Christ,

James G. Battell

Ho hum.