Wednesday, 26 September 2007

Today I had my first visit to North Herts CVS’s new offices, located on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Letchworth: open plan, modern, spacious, light, good wiring. I was quite envious. They are based on the first floor and there is no wheelchair access, but nor was there access at their previous premises.

I was there for a meeting of the HIC steering group and we had a very productive day sorting out the next stage of the HIC Consortium Development Plan and starting to discuss future projects. The timetable for completing this work is now pretty tight and we are just starting to feel the pressure a bit. But we are making very good progress and I am confident we will end up with a good plan. I am meeting Jacquie Hime again on Friday to try and finalise planning for the next steps.

Back home, I worked through the Value and Volumes results. There are still a few discrepancies to resolve but sometime soon I will finally be able to say that this task is completed.

The news from Burma is not good, with the military junta suppressing the pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks. I know the current Burmese dictatorship is abhorrent, but I don’t know the particular agenda of the Buddhist monks. In recent years, the words freedom and democracy have been grievously corrupted. The words now have something to do with the ability to use coercion (including invasion, terror, bombing, beatings, torture, kidnapping) to impose a way of life on other people. In both east and west, it seems deeply unfashionable to believe that people should exercise free will and enjoy personal freedom to live as they choose.

Also on the subjects of religion and politics, I watched The Protestant Revolution on television. Tonight's episode contained a line from Dr Tristram Hunt that I will long savour: "What is the connection between this urinal and the Protestant Revolution?"