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October 18, 2006
Losing our freedoms?
There is a scene in my favourite bit of Sci-fi telly, Babylon 5, in which a group of rather unpleasant politicians who have managed to win power by playing the fear card rather well (a bit too close to the reality of New Labour sometimes!) make the statement that "it may be too our advantage to play up this threat. It may help us to extend the President's emergency powers later." Looking at the record since Blair came to power you could be excused for thinking that, as his popularity has waned at home, his pursuit of "threats" from nameless and sometimes imagined, enemies at home and abroad have enabled him to sneak in a wide range of legislation all of which restricts, removes or limits our long cherished freedoms.
Freedom of speech is now seriously limited since you cannot debate the ethics of a wide range of government mantras without being accused of racism, sexism, fascism or some other conveniently invented label all meaning much the same thing. To question the "wisdom" of any of Whitehall's denizens and superfluity of "advisers" is to lay yourself open to being labelled and extremist of some sort. An interesting twist on that is the latest statement by Ms Kelly to the effect that the Far Right is as dangerous as ever. What about the Extreme Left Ms Kelly? Or are they OK people because they are members of your Party and your government? Of course, the Old Labour Party members used to be allowed to tell us that Stalin was such a nice man who really did run Soviet Russia as a "workers paradise". Yes, well, most of them also have fairies at the bottom of the garden as well - except that you are not allowed to say that anymore, it might offend someone!
The problem for many of us is that New Labour's much vaunted "morality" is in reality, nothing more than the personal prejudices of the various people who make up the Party, repackaged and redressed as "morals". Their dream of "redistributing" wealth is just that, an unachievable dream. Wealth can only be created by effort, those who make no effort gain no wealth. Yes, there are unfairnesses in the manner in which effort is rewarded - I for one would not pay the Senior Mandarins in Whitehall a single penny since they produce nothing and destroy everything they are entrusted with - and the modern belief in "across the board" pay rises based on percentages can only exacerbate the inequalities between senior managers and the actual workers. But, of course, it is not in the interests of anyone on the upper end of those awards to change them.
Many of the much vaunted "Rights" they have driven through legislation have resulted in hardship for those on the delivery end, while further rewarding his real constituents, the moneyed and wealthy who fund his Party. A good example is the "Right" to choose how you work, almost entirely anulled by the granting of a seven day trading week for much of the retail industry. The supposed "protection" built in for existing workers who chose not to work on Sundays was a laughable farce. It could not and did not afford any protection at all, since employers had the perfect get out clause written in by their stool pigeons in Parliament. All they had to do was make acceptance of a "flexible" week compulsory if you changed your position in your employment. So, either stay in your present job with no improvement in benefit - or take a "promotion" and change your "right" to choose not working on a Sunday. Overall, the only winner here is the Board and Senior Management of the likes of Tesco, B&Q et al, none of whom are ever required to work at a weekend.
Family friendly working is another of his Weapons of Mass Deception, since the reality for many of those it was supposed to benefit is very different. It has meant, when taken with the seven day working idea, that many families now rarely have the same two days off. The husband and wife may be on different work patterns and the children are at school when they are off work. Is it any surprise that the fabric of our society is unravelling? It shouldn't be - but remember that Blair and the rest of those who have subscribed to this - and the Tories and LibDems are all in the boat with him - will never have to face these choices themselves. Why should they, they earn hugely inflated salaries, employ their own relatives and cronies as their assistants and secretaries and have the luxury of awarding their annual pay increases themselves. Would a turkey vote for Christmas? Not likely, but, as long as it doesn't affect them, their families or their chums in the Treasury or any other Whitehall Department, why should they.
In the last ten years the legislation we live with has been amended, changed or replaced on a phenomenal scale - and all of it has in some way restricted our traditional freedoms - or even removed them. Blair and the Civil Servants will argue that this is necessary to meet the threat of terrorism or to "harmonise" with Europe. But is this the truth, or are we simply the victims of power hungry autocrats who believe that we are incapable of behaving decently or managing our day to day lives without their interference? I rather think it is the latter, and that view is supported by the announcement that that other buffoon holding a Ministerial brief, Harriet Harman, that millions of our money is to be spent "teaching children how to eat fruit". That and the further idea floated by another minister that students should be spied on to ensure they are not getting involved in radicalism. East Germany's Stazi are but a whisker away from being re-established in Britain!
Unless we are able to take back our freedoms from this shower of closet dictators very soon, we will lose any right to call ourselves a free and democratic nation. Sadly I do not think that any of the alternative parties would be any better in power!
Posted by The Gray Monk at October 18, 2006 11:38 AM
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