Britain: well on the way to dictatorshipp - and incompetent with it

So this evening we had the news that Gordon Brown's Labour government won the vote on 42-day detention without charge, with a tiny majority of 9 - solely as a result of the support they received from the Democratic Unionist Party, undoubtedly the most reactionary political party in the UK (not excluding UKIP or even, amazingly, the BNP). I hope Gordon Brown and his [few remaining] genuine Labour supporters (i.e. not those who simply 'whored' themselves out today in the hope of retaining their seats at the next election) feel proud of what they have achieved. My own view is that this 'success' will be one of the factors that lead to Labour being defeated at the next General Election. On the other hand, all the opinion polls seem to show that a substantial majority of the population supports this further deeply authoritarian change, so maybe most people really think they won't mind living in what is effectively now a 'police state'; personally I consider this to be unconscionable complacency from a population used to living in a reasonably-prosperous and reasonably-liberal democracy for some decades. One must just hope that none of the complacent majority, or their relatives or friends, finds him/herself caught up in the nightmarish 42-day black-hole 'oubliette' regime that the government hopes to leave us as its legacy. Always provided of course that the government (aka 'regime') can get it through the House of Lords. The general commentary this evening seems to conclude that it will be kicked out by the Upper House; I consider this to be yet more complacency and I do not subscribe to it.

Now we come to Labour incompetence, and inevitably with Labour (whether under Blair or Brown) that cannot ever be excluded - there is indeed no shortage of examples of incompetence to choose from. However, as there was a prime example of this alarmingly-frequent characteristic of Labour's idea of how to run a country revealed today, the very day they got their 42-day detention amendment through the House of Commons, let's highlight that. Yes, these buffoons have managed to administer a system that allowed a senior civil servant to leave two supposedly 'secret' documents on a train! A development one informed (if not politically-neutral) commentator described as the latest fiasco in a:

"long line of serious breaches of security."

This is unfortunately unlikely to be the last such breach of security whilst Brown and his accomplices remain in power.

PS/ I have long thought of the people behind this influential and somewhat reactionary 'Conservative' website as buffoons, too. Their apology this evening, whilst in some ways exemplary (i.e at least it is intellectually honest), reveals them to be - yet again - supporting a position that is as inept as it is despicable and as usual on the wrong side of history.