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The Temptation of Power – Part 4: The Business of Caring

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There was a time when caring for another human being rarely appeared in the national accounts. Parents raised children. Adult children cared for ageing parents. Neighbours looked after neighbours. Meals were cooked. Clothes were repaired. Homes were maintained. None of this counted towards Gross Domestic Product. It generated no invoices. It attracted no taxation. Yet society functioned. This raises an uncomfortable question. When politicians speak proudly of economic growth, are we always producing more wealth, or are we sometimes merely paying for activities that families once performed without charge? Suppose a mother stays at home to care for her own child. Economically, almost nothing happens. No wages are paid. No income tax is collected. No National Insurance contributions are made. No VAT is charged. The child receives care, but GDP barely notices. Now suppose that same mother returns to paid employment. The child enters professional childcare. The mother earns a salary. The ch...
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The Temptation of Power - Part Three: The Household — Society's Forgotten Institution

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When people discuss the institutions that shape society, they usually think of government. Some think of business. Others think of the courts. Few stop to consider the institution that, for thousands of years, formed the foundation of civilisation itself. The household. Today the word often means little more than the people who happen to live under the same roof. Historically it meant something far greater. The household was society's first government. It was the first school. It was the first welfare system. It was the first healthcare provider. It was the first pension scheme. It was the first childcare service. It was the first place where values, responsibilities and practical skills were passed from one generation to the next. Long before governments assumed these responsibilities, households performed them naturally. Children were educated by parents and extended family. The elderly were cared for by their relatives. Food was produced, preserved and prepared within the home. ...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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The Temptation of Power - Part Two: Why Governments Never Stop Growing

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If every government power creates opportunities for abuse, one might expect governments to exercise great restraint before assuming new responsibilities. History suggests the opposite. Modern governments have grown steadily in size, scope and influence. They regulate more activities than previous generations could have imagined. They collect more information, levy more taxes, administer more services and influence more aspects of daily life. Why? The obvious answer is that governments seek power for its own sake. Sometimes that may be true. More often, however, I believe government grows for a far simpler reason. Every problem creates a demand for action. When crime rises, people demand tougher laws. When businesses fail, people demand financial assistance. When housing becomes expensive, people demand regulation. When inflation rises, people demand intervention. When people lose their jobs, they demand support. When healthcare struggles, they demand additional funding. Politicians res...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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The Temptation of Power - Part One: The First Principle — Every Power Will Be Abused

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Most political arguments begin by asking what government should do. I believe they begin with the wrong question. Before deciding what powers a government should possess, we must first ask a more fundamental question: What assumptions should we make about power itself? My answer is simple. Every power granted by government will create opportunities for abuse. Notice carefully what I am not saying. I am not claiming that every public servant is corrupt. I am not claiming that every government programme is harmful. Nor am I suggesting that every exercise of governmental authority results in injustice. Rather, I begin with an observation about human nature. Human beings are imperfect. Some are honest. Some are selfish. Some are compassionate. Some are malicious. Most are simply ordinary people responding to incentives, pressures and opportunities. Government does not change human nature. It merely places ordinary people in positions where they can exercise extraordinary authority over ot...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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Twenty Years at the Summit of the Moral High Ground

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Twenty years is a long time. When I published the first articles on this blog back in 2005, I genuinely believed that politics could make the world a better place. Like many people entering public life for the first time, I believed that if enough honest people became involved, if enough good ideas were debated, and if enough poor decisions were challenged, then society could gradually be improved. Looking back, I smile at that optimism. It is one of the privileges of youth to believe that problems are simple, that institutions exist to fulfil the purposes for which they were created, and that those entrusted with public office are motivated principally by a desire to serve the public. Experience has a habit of challenging comfortable assumptions. Over the past twenty years this blog has wandered across many different subjects. There have been articles about economics, taxation, constitutional reform, libertarian philosophy, civil liberties, Jersey politics, government policy and the o...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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Oneness with God lies in the Auscultation of the Ether

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There are thoughts that arise from reason.  There are impulses born from fear, desire, anxiety and emotion. And then, occasionally, there is something else. A deeper knowing. Not a sentence formed in language. Not a chain of conscious logic. Not the emotional turbulence that so often disguises itself as intuition. But a still and profound apprehension that seems to emerge from somewhere beyond the isolated self. I have come to think of this as Auscultation of the Ether . The phrase itself is important. Auscultation is a clinical term. A physician auscultates the body with a stethoscope, listening beneath the surface for hidden rhythms — the beating of the heart, the movement of the lungs, the subtle signs of disorder or vitality that cannot be seen directly with the eye. To auscultate is not merely to hear. It is to listen attentively and with discipline. The Ether , meanwhile, is an ancient concept: the unseen medium once believed to permeate all things, the subtle field...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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A deeper personal 'Gnosis' achieved through the Baghavad Gita

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Translated into English Gnosis in an Age of Madness Back in 2020, when much of the world seemed gripped by a kind of irrational mass hysteria, I found myself craving something increasingly rare in modern life: silence. Not merely physical silence, but intellectual silence. Space away from the noise of governments, media cycles, social conformity, and the endless pressure to think collectively rather than individually. I wanted solitude because I wanted clarity. I wanted to think. More importantly, I wanted to experience true gnosis . English is a curious language, perhaps because we have developed a habit of hollowing out words and reshaping them until their original meanings become obscured. The word gnosis comes from the Greek and simply means “to know.” Not to speculate. Not to believe. Not to repeat fashionable opinions. But to know through direct understanding and experience. Today, if one searches for “Gnosticism,” one is immediately directed toward discussions of obscure ea...
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Location: St Clement, Jersey
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