Has Blair's Government gone mad?

I have always thought that the "New Labour" government of Tony Blair has a mixed record. Some of its domestic policy achievements have been pretty good, and its ability to take the Tories to pieces more than once has been heart-warming.

However there is also an authoritarian, nasty streak to that government, the constant and eventually chilling tactic of using the fear of terrorism to attack civil liberties.

Henry Porter wrote a piece in this month's vanity fair magazine, which ended up being cited in the course of someone being arrested for holding a sign up near the British Parliament. You can read more on this in his latest piece here, in the Observer.

The sign that Steve Jago held on 18 June in Whitehall carried a quote from George Orwell. 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' It comes from Nineteen Eighty-Four and it is perhaps worth speculating what Eric Blair would have thought of a law that allows a young man to be arrested for displaying a placard outside Downing Street. He would certainly be astounded at the direction this Labour government has taken and I suggest he would be troubled by what followed in the police station.

Mr Jago, who will appear in court in September on charges of mounting an illegal demonstration prohibited by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Socpa ), was searched and found to have three copies of an article from Vanity Fair.

Entitled 'Blair's Big Brother Britain', the article happens to be by me and puts together much of what I have written in this paper. But this is not really relevant. What matters is that one of the officers stated for the record that he was showing the defendant these copies and described them as 'politically motivated' material...

Worth reading the rest of it, and the original article. Scary stuff. Whatever else you can say about the government here, we have not bought into this sort of collective madness approach that is leading to some very scary things in Britain these days.

Comments

[tim barclay]

The Blair government is doing huge harm in the area of criminal justice becuase Tony Blair thinks that crime especially an authoritarian approach to crime is "our" issue. This is because crime does affect Labour voters more closely and I agree. But there has been 6 home secretaries, and I believe 43 pieces of criminal law legislation much of it a knee jerk reaction to some issue. Blair has done great harm here with a large and important Department of State (the Home Office) being no longer "fit for purpose" and it is Blair's fault. Blair deserves to go for this reason alone but I guess you lefties will argue Iraq as well and I am agnostic about that.

[Gary]

The difference in New Zealand, is that when someone holds up a demonstration sign near the Prime Minister, she is attacked by a Labour Minister! Who needs the police when you have Hodgson?

[span]

I was in the UK when Forrestgate happened - did that get any coverage here? Basically it sounded like the police totally over reacted to a piece of "intelligence" that two Muslim brothers living in the Forrestgate area were allegedly building a chemical vest to poison people on the Tube. They sent in 250 police and shot one of the brothers in the shoulder before they identified they were police. After a week (I think) of holding the brothers without charge they let them go, charge-less. The climate of hysteria about possible terrorism over there is extreme. And the anniversary of 7/7 is coming up this week too.

[PabloR]

Huge harm to the criminal justice system and to civil liberties. Like Tim says, he is playing tabloid politics, hooking into the things that appeal to Sun readers and crime he thinks is one of them. Perhaps he thinks that his legacy will look more impressive if he leaves Brown to fight an unwinnable elction in 2010? The Tories have always been a bit frightened by Tony's ability to ramp up the traditional Conservative support policies to his benefit (immigration, crime, benefit fraud) so how Cameron reacts will be interesting. If it is any different from the reactions of the past five Tory leaders i'll be surprised.

[span]

It's all a bit scary, having seen V for Vendetta.

Interesting speculation about Blair deliberately sabotaging things for Brown, PabloR - reminds me of a certain leader of a certain v small NZ political party... but I won't harp on about that. Anyway, Brown surely must get up sooner rather than later, so that would hopefully give him time to defuse any ticking time bombs Blair leaves in the bedside table at #10?

[Mausie]

In the final episode of Simon Schama's TV Series, A History of Britain, he organises the narrative of 20th Century war and politics around the twin figures of Winston Churchill and Winston Smith (the protagonist of 1984). One wonders if the Simon Schama of the 22nd Century will organise a narrative around the twin figures of Tony and Eric Blair...

[Peter Wilson]

Nice one Gary. Without wishing to enter a debate on that matter as it has already been through the courts, I was standing right next to Pete Hodgson at the time of the alleged incident, and his account of the situation was correct. Flannagan was most certainly about to pull a sign down over the PM's head, had Hodgson not intervened.

[Logix]

Mausie,

That was one of the most pertinent and right-on posts I have read in a damm long time. Kudos.

[Peter Wilson]

Typo - I meant before the police.

[Gary]

Actually Peter, the case involving Hodgson didn't go before the courts - it was determined by the police to be not in the public's interest to proceed, despite a prima facie case existing.

While I wasn't present at the incident, there does appear to be a wide variation of recollections from witnesses.