|
The Libertarian Party UK 1984
campaign is this week delivering a copy of George
Orwell's prophetic novel to every Member of Parliament.
The books will be inscribed with the words, 'This book
was a warning, not a blueprint' and will arrive at Parliament
on or before November 5th - a date of well known historical
significance for that building.
The UK Libertarian Party leader, Ian Parker-Joseph,
explained, "As the people of Britain become ever more
spied upon and ever more heavily taxed, as the government
attempts to control how much we should smoke, eat and
drink, as the state legislates to regulate ever more
the minutiae of our lives, the Libertarian Party want
to remind people that we have the power, and that our
elected representatives work for us."
The first MP to receive his copy was Tom Harris, Labour
MP for Glasgow South and recently relieved of his ministerial
position at the Department for Transport.
Mr Harris penned a blog entry entitled, "An
Orwellian nightmare? Oh, wake up!" in which
he accused those worried about the creeping power of
the state in our everyday lives of being "strange"
and "paranoid".
Practically every one of the many commentators disagreed
with Mr Harris and there were many eloquent replies,
so his next blog entry was, "Poking
that sleeping dog with a stick," in which he
states:
"Although I disagree with those who say we’re
slipping towards a police state (just about everyone
who commented on that post), I’m at least aware of the
concerns that lead people to have such fears."
This post attracted another deluge of comments and
Mr Harris promised: "UPDATE at 7.40 pm: I’m in
the process of drafting one final post on this subject,
responding to more of the arguments made here today."
I was getting excited. I reckoned that after 300 comments,
almost all trying to convince the MP of our concerns,
that he would concede that there were problems with
civil liberties.
I hereby reproduce that entire promised post "responding
to more of the arguments" that he had been "in
the process of drafting."
Wait for it:
"1984: my final word - I think we’re all going
to have to agree to disagree on this one, don’t you
think?"
Thank you, Mr Harris. Labour still listening, eh?
Some comments sounded threatening, which irked Mr Harris.
Old
Holborn chipped in with this:
"Again, I state, there are but 646 of you. Don’t
you EVER forget it, because it wasn’t that long ago
that we really did hang politicians. And Ceausescu moments
will always happen."
"And last but not least, people should not be
afraid of their governments (and they are), governments
should be afraid of their people (and you will be)."
"Just as you know where we live, we know where
you live."
To which Harris replied:
"How pompous can any individual actually get?
So, are you threatening democratically-elected politicians
with murder just because we don’t do what you and your
small band of fanatics in the Libertarian Party want
us to do?"
To be fair, hanging is a traditional reward for treason.
As for pomposity, to totally disregard the opinions
of about 98% of the people who commented on his blog
is really, really pompous.
There are millions of people who are no longer afraid,
because when you have nothing more to lose, or are threatened
with losing what little you have - the worm turns and
politicians should start to worry as Old Holborn and
others have warned, because Ceausescu
moments will always happen.
Comments can be left on my
blog.
|
