Wednesday 24 January 2007

hello and welcome

So, what to say in the first entry on a new blog?

Rather than launching straight into the great controversies of the day I might start with some ground-rules / notes-to-self and a bit of background on the things that influence my opinions.

Firstly, I'm not going to attempt to provide a one-stop-shop for a full range of opinion on current news and other matters of interest - Daniel Finkelstein already does a marvellous job of this on his 'Comment Central' blog and you should visit it often. I'm also going to try to avoid simply restating points of view that have already been widely debated by more eloquent and informed pundits than I.

As long as I've got the settings right for this site you shouldn't be able to post comments on this blog, and neither can you email me. If you find that you can leave comments this will indicate that I'm a technological incompetent rather than a willing recipient for your informed and constructive criticism or demented ramblings. I'm afraid that as an amateur pundit and full time occupation-other-than-pundit I don't have time to dispute every point and reply to correspondence. However at variance this may be with my views on the external world this blog is a pulpit, not a parliament.

On my own political outlook, you'll see from my profile that I describe myself as broadly centre-left, and I normally vote Labour. However, with my politics being more Euston Manifesto than Campaign Group I often find myself drawn into fairly lively debates with others who would describe themselves as left and Labour. I find this doesn't stop right-wing people thinking I'm a raving revolutionary, but there you go.

On social issues I take a fairly liberal line, with J.S.Mill's distinction between 'self-regarding' and 'other-regarding' acts being something of a guiding principle:

"The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection. The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant."

As a teenager I'd have considered myself a red-flag waving ideological socialist, but I've come round to the view that, to steal from Churchill's famous quote about democracy, "capitalism is the worst form of economic system, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Actually, it's worse than that - I've accepted the ethical as well as the pragmatic case for (regulated) capitalism, in admitting that the practical demands of sustaining a socialist economic system would trample all over the liberal principle espoused above.

I found that James Surowiecki’s 'The Wisdom of Crowds' provides a good logical argument for both capitalism and democracy being superior to any form of rule by experts.

In my student days I spent a lot of time reading George Orwell, particularly the non-fiction books and essays, and while these don't utterly shape my worldview I suspect they still have a fair influence on my thinking. If you only read one essay make it 'Notes on Nationalism'.

As for my day-to-day reading, I read the Times more or less cover-to-cover on my way to work in the morning, and usually skim the comment sections of the other broadsheets on the internet to print out some reading for the return journey. Among blogs by professional journalists Oliver Kamm is probably closest to my own location on the political spectrum, while Stephen Pollard is good for providing a well argued centre-right challenge to some of my own assumptions. I also keep an eye on Spiked for its bracing argumentativeness.

That should have given you a fair idea of what to expect, and if it hasn't utterly put you off you'll find my assorted pontifications here in due course.