V for Vendetta - future documentary or fiction?

I had not seen (or indeed heard of) the wonderful film V for Vendetta until yesterday evening when it was shown on BBC3 - I have recorded it and am watching it now whilst recording it onto DVD for my film library. Here's a video-clip of the speech made by 'V' over the hijacked 'British Television Network' near the beginning of the film, where he reveals to the whole nation, and its infuriated dictatorial rulers, what his plans are to bring to an end the dictatorship the country labours (*) under:



It is scarily like what Britain, after 12 years of an increasingly authoritarian Labour government, is in process of becoming. Of course the old canard (i.e. nakedly propagandistic lie) runs through the movie that the authoritarian regime portrayed in it is somehow extreme 'right-wing' (even going so far as to portray the instigator of it as a former member of the Conservative Party), when in fact it has much more in common with real-life extreme 'left-wing' authoritarian regimes of the past - notably the former Soviet Union and even more the National Socialist regime that seventy years years ago ruled Germany. I do not say, or believe, that we in Britain are currently anywhere near reaching the level of authoritarianism portrayed in this film, but the building-blocks to take us there are indeed being put into place by our current Labour government - to mention just a few these include a number of 'enhancements' such as an ever-growing DNA database, a national population database register, ID Cards and massive use of CCTV surveillance (the most extensive of any country in the world). Getting rid of Labour at the next general election is only the first step necessary to put the country back onto a better path - a lot of legislation put in place since 1997 needs to be repealed and we must ensure than whoever forms the incoming government (most likely, on current trends, to be from the Conservative Party) does this and we must use any opportunity between now and the election to cajole and badger them into committing themselves to do so and to fulfill commitments already made in this regard.

(*) - and I use that particular verb quite deliberately.

Labour MP defies government on 42-day detentions and civil liberties

The Labour government seems intent on ploughing on with its dangerous and sinister policy of dismantling hard-won civil rights in this country, but at least one Labour MP has now decided to say very clearly what I imagine many of his fellow Labour Party MPs secretly believe, but few are reluctant to talk about openly yet.

Bob Marshall-Andrews MP is quoted today in the Observer as saying:

"They can't muzzle the whole of the party, and it seems to me foolish in the extreme in the present climate to start describing civil liberties as a stunt,' he told The Observer. 'I have had emails asking, 'Why does it take a Tory to say this'?"

And it's a good question! However, the answer is pretty straighforward, too. Socialists tend to believe that the 'State knows best' and tend to believe that as a result the master/servant relationship between citizen and government would really better be expressed the other way round. Countries all round the world have tried this and failed. People don't like it and, given the free choice, get rid of governments operating under this model.

Normally, open defiance like this of Party policy would lead to the whip being withdrawn, although with over 40 Labour MPs having voted against the Government last week, Marshall-Andrews is in good company. He is also not the kind of man easily pushed around. Can Gordon Brown really afford to take a firm line? I tend to doubt it, but we'll know more after Labour's parliamentary committee meets on Wednesday. Labour has been trying to mock David Davis for his 'maverick' stand, but it seems the smile may get wiped off its face pretty quickly, if this is a guide.

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.

A Bill to neuter Parliament

Imagine the scandal if Her Majesty decided to diverge from the official script written for Her by what is supposed to be 'Her' Government and told the unvarnished truth about what the crowd of scroundrels who govern us are, after being thwarted the last time they tried it, once more attempting to do:

What Her Majesty the Queen might say - My Government will enact legislation to avoid the tiresome necessity of having to get the approval of Parliament before repealing any Act of Parliament it chooses, something my forebears used to be able to do until a little local difficulty [regicide and an inter-regnum] put paid to this ..... [we are sorry to interrupt this broadcast, but Her Majesty has unfortunately suffered a mental breakdown and has had to be hospitalised (i.e. has been taken into custody by the State Law and Order Commission)]

Basically, as the ever-excellent SpyBlog points out, the government wishes to sneak a section (Part 6 Article 43) into a Bill just published entitled 'The Governance of Britain - Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill', which will effectively ressurect the pernicious terms of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill granting the government the legal right to over-turn any piece of legislation by simple Ministerial fiat, effectively turning the UK into a dictatorship, which the government had to back-down from after the outrage aroused a couple of years ago once its terms became widely understood. Perhaps Brown and his cronies think we will just roll over and accept it this time.

I do hope that this Government is turfed out at the next general election; the last Conservative government did a number of silly things, some pretty unpleasant things, too, during its 18 years in power, but nothing approaching the pernicious kind of legislation that the present Labour government seems to specialise in.