In Saturday’s blog, I wrote about the way in which Labour’s attacks on our civil liberties were slowly but surely turning us into a police state, and I contrasted our MP’s relaxed inaction in the face of this threat with their enthusiastic hyperactivity when it comes to stopping us finding out about their expenses.
What do you know? Yesterday Gordon Brown announced he was shelving this latter plan. Even Disaster History blog doesn’t normally get results this quickly! But typically Labour has managed to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. Was the government dropping the idea because it had seen the light and realised it was outrageous to try to hide MP’s expenses from the rest of us who pay for them? No. The problem was that opposition parties were refusing to support the cover-up, grumbled the PM.
FACT. Labour’s Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, was once legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty). What is she doing supporting the authoritarian changes I wrote about on Saturday?
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Spot on, and enthusiastic hyperactivity is such a perfect and hilarious phrase when trying to think antonymically(?) about their usual, slab-like, iguana-esque behaviour. Lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteA small victory, but not to be sniffed at. Sadly it does nothing to slow Labour's creation of a police state. Have you heard the latest from Jack "Man of" Straw? If you're planning to hold a gig, you have to tell the police from what race are the people you expect to attend! And if you get the name of one of the acts wrong, you could go to jail for 6 months. Astonishing, but, it seems, true: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jan/21/police-form-696-garage-music
ReplyDeleteAlso saw reports of police demanding proof of identity from people attending some gigs. Any more info on this welcome.