Thursday 19 February 2009

Radical? More Like a Fart in a Thunderstorm

I just despair. ConservativeHome (I'm not sure why I still read it, unless it's to torture myself) is fĂȘting David Cameron as a radical because he wants to decentralise government, copy the Swedish school system and is being 'bold' enough to encourage marriage rather than shacking up. I enquired the following:
"How about radically pedalling back the database state? Removing the majority of CCTV cameras which make us the most watched nation on earth - to the extent that China is using US as their surveillance model? Throwing out any hint of the NIR? Destroying DNA retained from innocent citizens? Destroying the ContactPoint database, CAF and all it implies? Ripping apart RIPA? Making people's medical records inaccessible to 300,000+ civil servants? By not automatically tracking each and every car? Throwing out Section 8 Cl. 152 of the Justice Bill and all clauses like it? Preventing liberty-eroding measures being implemented through Statutory Instrument rather than Parliamentary scrutiny? A referendum on the Lisbon treaty? Demanding a full enquiry into Labour's dealings with the CIA re Guantanamo in particular and Special Rendition in general? Investigating ACPO; preventing a private for-profit company to carry out police work? Making MPs' expenses more accessible? A full enquiry into the Iraq war? A return to freedom of speech; a destruction of the proposed legislation that will make it illegal for civil servants to even mention religion? These would be radical measures indeed."
Needless to say, said questions went unanswered; instead, more discussions by smug, fairly affluent, fairly average types about the 'right' thing to do to 'get people back to work'. i.e. raising the tax threshold. Would the entire nation pull its finger out if tax were capped at 4%, one wonders?

5 comments:

  1. How long does all that take? Question the history not the future, at this period in time. If it stays much the same then Cameron will be seen to fail. If it changes then the blogosphere might be able to say we helped bring that about. The Conway decision was blogged to the fore, as an example of "people power".

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know that we can cope with much more failure in this country; even this week the International Justice Commission has stated categorically that the UK and US have contributed to a fundamental disintegration of international law. Feels rather like the last days of the Roman Empire. To remove said laws - well, if the Conservatives get an absolutely overwhelming majority in Parliament, as the latest MORI poll suggests (+194) all they have to do in theory is bellow 'aye' and the offensive act is ready to be struck off the statute books. I agree - it's up to us, now: the mainstream media is completely ineffectual and acting entirely in corporatist interests: http://www.medialens.org/alerts/09/090217_putting_out_the.php

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's funny you should mention the Roman Empire. I was thinking this morning long before I read this post that Western civilisation is rapidly going down the pan. Bring back Gibbon, he can update Decline and Fall.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know they're getting rid of contactpoint as I did get an answer when I emailed them a few weeks ago. I used to be a staunch Tory but I'm very disappointed in them at the moment. I almost feel that they will be as corrupt as the Labour Party if they don't start back peddling on some of the "Big Brother" stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't think there'll be any difference between the two parties at all. A sad indictment of our political system. In 1970s, the then candidates for the Communist parties decided that there was no point in running for election, as the Republicans and Democrats had already absorbed all their policies into their own parties' manifestos. Tis the same with 'Dave' et al.

    ReplyDelete

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat -Ralph Ellison