I don't do this sort of thing lightly, partly because it isn't in the nature of this blog to be a significant forum on political issues (though I refuse to let that stop me having occasional bursts of indignation on political matters). But I've spent a good while now letting the debates and ambivalences about The Euston Manifesto sink in and I've decided that the reasons against me signing are not as compelling as those for. I don't think we've got time to wait around for the perfect political manifesto, and I really do not feel I can write one myself. So I'm signing this one because it's as close as I'm going to get in this lifetime to something I believe in.
And because debate about these things is sure as hell worth having and preserving as a fundamental demonstration of our democratic freedom.
5 comments:
This is pretty much how I felt about it as well. There is much in it about which I have reservations, a few bits that I found more than a little odd and a fair amount that I felt was missing. But, as a first step in a debate about fundamental and universal rights, I think it is a document worth supporting.
Same here
I'll definitely be passing on this one - never liked excuses for western imperialism myself!
Reidski: I do understand that interpretation (even though I don't entirely agree with you) and I know you're not alone in making it. I'm not saying it's perfect, but the Euston Manifesto at least suggests a way to try and think political reponses out of the impasse so many of them have reached.
To be honest, this whole shebang, like so many others in the blogosphere is a shadow movement signifying nothing much. People discussing and affirming and disagreeing with one another in their online ghettoes. It will not make a scrap of difference to anyone living in poverty in the UK or abroad. Just another excuse for the self-important to pontificate at the expense of action.
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