Athens

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Last weekend I wrote that I was snowed in in Athens and in case you didn't believe me, here I am standing on the rocky platform of the Pnyx from where, I'm told, Demosthenes addressed his fellow (free & male) Athenians in the cockpit of democracy.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): You can tell what Jack Straw thinks of constitutional reform, Trevor Smith told me, from the way he reintroduced walking backwards from the monarch after handing her the Queen's speech. I suspect Trevor was there, as a member of the House of Lords. His scathing remark reminded me of Benjamin's angel of history, propelled backwards into the future, longing to pause and make good what has been done (see comment below). Today, Straw tells Guardian readers that Britain is a much better country thanks to Labour's progressive reforms since 1997. Indeed it is. Many of what some have called Charter 88's demands have been met, and he is right to list them: The Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information, self government in Scotland, Wales and London. Now, the most pressing problem is not the need for the remaining reforms which still await us: a fair electoral system, a representative second chamber, a democratic constitution. It is the nature of the centralising British state that delivered reform despite itself. Its impulse is dangerous for liberty and anti-pluralist and it seems to be getting worse under Brown. In his article Straw endorses the idea that a "quiet revolution" has taken place in "the way we are governed". Really? Just over a month ago he sung a different tune. He gave evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the constitution and told them (opens as pdf),

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): I promised some inside pictures of the new museum which one day will become the home of the so-called Elgin marbles from the Parthenon - preferably on the loan basis that I suggested in my report. It has taken a bit of time as a daughter borrowed my digital camera and we only had a disposable snapper picked up at the airport. Now we have an OK flickr account and you can see eight of the pictures here. Will Britain becomes up-tight and defensive or open-minded and generous as it is obliged to find its place in an expanded Europe? The answer will, in part, be fought out over its holdings of the past. Here is a picture of the immense new frieze hall being prepared for the marbles.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Back from Greece where I attended a wonderful 'Symi seminar' run by George Papandreou, leader of PASOK, the socialist opposition party hoping to win the elections due within the year. On the way back I was privileged to meet Professor Pandermalis, the head of the New Acropolis Museum now nearing completion - and then to be given a hard-hat tour of the building. It is going to be magnificent. My own photos will follow, this image from the plans gives just a taste of its quality and daring. On the top, built to the scale of the Parthenon itself, which can been seen through the glass, are the walls on which the original panels and sculptures of the Parthenon's frieze will be hung. Most of them, the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' are in the British Museum. It will be impossible to keep them there in the face of world opinion after the Athens museum opens.

Daniel Leighton (London, Power Inquiry): For anyone thinking about how to involve ‘ordinary citizens’ in political decision making, Bettany Hughes’ TV documentary on Athenian democracy provides good food for thought. After seeing part one I want to alert people to the case for adding selection by lot to our own government. Part two goes out tomorrow, Saturday. It may not be easily digestible for moderns obsessed with elections as the alpha and omega of democracy. As Hughes reminded us, the Athenians opted for lotteries over elections as their primary method for appointing people to political offices. In the modern world elections are seen as the defining characteristic of democracies. In that part of the ancient world elections were seen as an aristocratic device. Although the Athenians used elections for a small minority of public offices, particularly for military and financial posts, lottery was considered the method that embodied the principle of political equality. Allotment spread the work of administration into the citizen body, engaging them in the crucial democratic experience of, to use Aristotle's words, "ruling and being ruled in turn".

Bettany Hughes (London, Lion Television): I've just embarked on writing a book about Socrates, and am tussling with an age old paradox: here is a state - Athens - that so fetishises freedom of speech it names one of its warships parrhessi, and yet convicts a wise old man of moral corruption because he speaks his mind freely. How much internal criticism can a democracy take?