Thursday, November 10, 2005

in the name of God, go!

Guardian Unlimited: Simon Hoggart: Hubbub then humiliation: Crispin Blunt arrived with the crucial slip of paper. Mr Blunt is a Tory MP who helped push Iain Duncan Smith on his way out two years ago. Yesterday he had a walk-on part in what might be the defenestration of Tony Blair. Rosencrantz and Crispin Blunt! His voice boomed out as if the hand of history were round his throat.

"The ayes to the right, 291! The noes to the left, 322!"


The next thing he should have said was: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go". (The words uttered by Cromwell to the Long Parliament and Leo Amery to Neville Chamberlain.)

Apparently a large swathe of the population thinks that the 90-day detention period is a good idea. They clearly haven't noticed the ludicrously long list of people wrongly detained under the existing anti-terrorism legislation: Walter Wolfgang, Sally Cameron, David Mery, and probably numerous others that we haven't heard about, including many innocent Muslims who appear on lists of al Qaeda suspects.

Among human rights campaigners there remains an uneasiness that innocent people are being added to lists and accused of crimes they have never committed
- Barnie Choudhury

4 comments:

The Silver Eel said...

Jesus. That's a very, very good link. I am shocked but not surprised.

Yewtree said...

Which one? Walter Wolfgang, Sally Cameron, David Mery, or the many innocent Muslims who appear on lists of al Qaeda suspects? Or all of them?

Joe said...

It is scary how even many liberal folk have bought the 'security of the realm' scare tactic (can't help but notice that, once again, Tony casually mentions the security services have recently right before the vote). I read an interview the other year with Spielberg, who comes from the Jewish liberal Hollywood side of things, and he was saying he didn't like the erosion of civil liberties in the US but if it protected his family he was all for it...

Fear is an excellent way of stopping the cognitive functions and allowing the more primitive instincts free reign and rendering people in that state more impressionable and malleable. No surprise those in power and certain media outlets (the Scum's front page this week, anyone?) are happy to keep us in this state.

This day is the day when we remember those who fought and fell for our liberty. Enemies of liberty come not only in bombers with swastikas; when any of us challenge dreadful legislation like this we are still fighting the good fight and we need words as sharp as bayonets and resolve as great as those generations who preserved our freedoms. I'll be damned before I allow some politician to undermind it.

Yewtree said...

Couldn't agree more, Joe. This 'security of the realm' thing is nothing more than a scare tactic to get us to swallow ever more illiberal measures. When Blair was being interviewed on the Today programme about it, he totally failed to reassure, in fact he made me more scared - "innocent people have nothing to fear" - oh yeah?