Posts Tagged ‘Nu-Labour’

So, today’s the day when we get to find out how few MPs have any principles or backbone left, as the Government seeks approval for its most appalling assault on civil liberties yet:

After a succession of U-turns and mixed messages, ministers have decided to stick to their original plan to give the police unprecedented powers to hold suspected terrorists without charge or trial for up to 90 days. This is more than six times as long as the existing 14-day limit and, taking current remission procedures into account, is equivalent to a six-month sentence. It is a huge breach of the 300-year-old habeas corpus principle that every arrested citizen has a right to be either charged or freed. Democracies are not supposed to allow imprisonment without trial.

An article in today’s Independent does a pretty good job of tearing apart the arguments for 90-day detention.

One of the victims of the July 7th bombings has written an excellent piece on the latest NuLabour legislation, and the disgraceful methods being used to push it through:

Why the rush if not for political gain? How dare you co-opt ‘the victims’ to defend this attack on liberties, as if we are all some amorphous bloodied mass that you can wave in front of the Commons as a fig leaf for your naked desire to be seen to be ‘tough on terror’?

As I type, the radio’s just announced that the 90-day internment proposal has been defeated (well, they didn’t actually use the word “internment”, but that’s what we’re talking about)! They’ll soon be voting on a “compromise” of 28 days.

I suppose I ought to follow up my previous posts with a comment on the election result.

Sadly the Lib Dems didn’t manage to unseat the Labour MP here, so Dulwich residents are going to be suffering from another four years of Irritable Jowell Syndrome. Her majority did go down by about 4,000, mostly in favour of the Lib Dems, but it still wasn’t close enough for me to feel guilty about voting Green. Around here, the Green candidate received 6.5 per cent of votes, and increase of 1.5%.

This election did nothing to restore my faith in this country’s so-called democracy; despite winning no more than 35 per cent of votes, Labour was still able to secure a comfortable majority of 67. Only 20 per cent of eligible voters voted Labour — the lowest figure in modern times — yet they’re allowed to run the country (in fact more people chose not to vote than actually voted for this government). Not to mention the 39 police investigations into allegations of postal ballot fraud. Clearly less keen on democracy at home than abroad… do as we say, not as we do.

The media must take a lot of the blame for the situation though. They consitently failed to raise many important issues, and tended to pose the most light-weight questions to the politicians. Paxman v Blair was pathetic (and Paxman’s Galloway interview made him look like a sad parody of himself worthy of Chris Morris). John Pilger’s written a good piece on this for the New Statesman:

The media coverage of this past election was a pastiche. Our right to know what our rulers are doing to people the world over is being lost in the new propaganda consensus.

And of course no sooner are Nu Labour back in power than they’re up to their old tricks. First Mandelson, now Blunkett…. Why do they call it a resignation? If a minister has done something that warrants resigning over, why should they be allowed back into government a few months later? That’s not resigning, that’s keeping your head down until the storm blows over and the media move on to another story. In other words, a bit of a holiday. Not even an unpaid holiday in Blunkett’s case — Blair allowed him to keep his grace-and-favour London residence and ministerial Jag.

In fact, since being forced to resign, Blunket has reportedly made £70,000 from extra-parliamentary work. This includes ignoring anti-sleaze guidelines and taking a job with Indepen Consulting Ltd, receiving between £15-20,000 from them. The company helps its clients develop a “relationship” with government; clients include Anglian Water, South West Trains, Thames Water, MM02 and T Mobile. Looks like I’m going to have to get my Blunkett Voodoo Doll out again.

As we British are such an unappreciative bunch, it’s good to know that at least some Americans recognize our Prime Minister’s heroic stance protecting us from Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction evilness. Now you too can thank him and petition for official recognition at ThankYouTony.com. Signatures will be printed on paper and shipped weekly to Downing Street and the White House. The site also has video clips of some of Tone’s most impassioned speeches, should you need to remind yourself of his greatness.