OK, OK. But Absolutely No Fifth Runway

As Gordon Brown's wasteful, intrusive juggernaut grinds the blood and bones of yet another protest line into the political landscape, so the survivors must rush to the next defensive position.

But in the absence of any effective political opposition, it is wise to choose something that Gordon and his goons would be truly looney tunes to set their sights on. Something so inherently dangerous that New Labour will spontaneously combust in the attempt to achieve it. Because we all know now that as soon as the good citizens gather to defend their interests, New Labour acquires another target, and the Cavalry stays away.

Iraq turned out to be just another rut in the road for these automatons. And I'm sure they can squeeze in a fourth runway at Heathrow, if we don't mind the odd plane landing on the M4 by mistake.

But I reckon a fifth runway at Heathrow would put New Labour on collision course with the M25. Nothing could survive that.

Better Regulation - Fill Your Boots

For those interested in keeping regulation to a bare minimum, like BERR (yeah, right), here's a little gem from the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons - the Government's rationale for the 2008/09 legislative programme.

It actually wouldn't let me set up any email alerts for speeches, statements, debates, parliamentary questions and so on, but it's a nice idea all the same...

There's plenty of fun to be had figuring out what problem(s), if any, they are trying to solve and comparing the rhetoric with the substance. I have some pet issues to revisit in the coming months.

Meanwhile, look out for random infrastructure projects to be paid for with public funds, like the £1.5bn pledged toward the Manchester congestion charge scheme. New Labour seems to believe it has a lot of taxpayers' money to hand out and not much time to do it!

Politicians@LinkedIn

I was slightly taken abarack just now to see that someone in my LinkedIn network had added Mr Obama to their network. Having viewed the candidate's profile, I also see that other US politicians have created profiles. I was somewhat comforted not to have found profiles for Gordo or Dave, but concluded that this may be more to do with their own arrogance than any desire to spare people the dilemma of whether or not to add them to their networks.

I don't know about you, but I can't see myself adding a politician to my social network, unless they happened to be a trusted, real-world friend. And that's just it. As far as I know, none of my trusted, real-world friends are politicians (other than perhaps in the sense that they cope with daily cut and thrust of office politics).

I also reckon that to add a Politician to your social network is tantamount to drinking the Kool-Aid - it's never going to end well.

Join the Quest for the Source of EU Legislation

This is the Last Straw. I've just seen "micro-enterprise" defined in a document called "2005/0245 (COD) LEX 797" as:

"an enterprise, which at the time of conclusion of the payment service contract, is an enterprise as defined in Article 1 and Article 2(1) and (3) [oh, don't forget 2(3)!!] of the Annex to Recommendation 2003/361/EC".

I'm thinking of launching a Quest to find those responsible for this latest gobbledigook and demand to know in plain English what "micro-enterprise" was intended to mean, without referring me anywhere else.

But where to start?

In 2005, the UK's Better Regulation Commission produced a fascinating, literal "map" of what we might really loosely describe as the 'European Union legislative process'. See especially page 14.

I'm not being sarcastic here. The report is a veritable base camp from which to begin the quest for the source and true meaning of EU legislation. It provides a guide, pack animals, tents, rope, torches and other basic tools. The rest of the specific search is down to good eyesight, a laptop or PC, broadband, physical fitness, strength, caffeine, food, and several towels that can be soaked in ice cold mountain springs and wrapped tightly around one's head. Oh, and a journey to Brussels. With a lobbyist.

Are you in?

It will be very crowded, but ours will be lonely work. Listening amidst the din of countless institutions and committees for the mystical whisper known as the "Social Dialogue". For it is only in that stream of semi-consciousness that we may dare to even hope to find the truth of the coded messages embedded in the "stakeholder input", "advice", "green papers", "proposals", "adoptions of proposals", "opinions", "consultations", "co-decisions", "common positions" and, ultimately the Regulations and Directives that emerge six or seven years later to drive us to distraction.

No?

Yeah, sod it. I'm staying in London to earn a crust.

Waiting for Gordo

I'm no political activist, nor wedded to any political party. But I'm not apathetic. I prefer my politics 'unbundled' and simply want to ensure that I'm getting real value for my tax spend - that the root causes of social problems are solved efficiently.

Research tells me that I am not alone, but what tools exist to help us achieve this?

Needless to say, the government of the day is particularly untrustworthy when it comes to demonstrating value for all the money we give it. The opposition are generally at the opposite extreme. The various media are concerned only with what is “news”, which is to say what they believe to be immediate, significant and topical - usually the posturing of the main political parties. And only the PR-skilled, lucky or very persistent ever get their message into the news. Like politicians and those who hire lobbyists.

The rest of us have been pretty much left with the National Audit Office, which provides great ammunition for everybody to use. But the NAO quite rightly focuses on how the government is currently spending or promising to spend our money now, and can't ever be seen to be using its fact finding and reporting as a basis for 'campaigning' for change.

So, it's up to us as citizens to find other ways of keeping the pressure on. But how?

Charities and other 'pressure groups' often do a good job of including the humble citizen in their activities e.g. Scope, Cancer Research, Oxfam. Otherwise, it's self-help.

Of course, "self-help" could mean voting, and even swapping your vote at the next General Election. But while you're waiting for our beloved Prime Minister to call one, you could get an overview of the problems as the politicians see them (and comment on your MP's blog), share your views with others via social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc), comments on blogs and email, participate with other vigilantes in our 'special relationship' with the US, sign up to a petition that proposes a solution to the root cause of your problem, write to the civil servants with your problem directly, or report an issue to your local council.

If there are other self-help measures, I'd love to hear of them.