A free country?

The Observer's Henry Porter has long been pointing out that New Labour has been busy dismantling many of the traditional liberties we enjoy Britain. Here's my comment on the Guardian's blog... the link to the full article and others' comments is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2089116,00.html


...Excellent article Henry Porter, one of your best. Do please keep it up. You are a voice of sanity and liberty in this country.

With today's news, that Nu-Labour want to stop and search us all, I really do wonder whether we can still be deemed to be living in a free country? I'm told that the authoritarian agenda stems from Whitehall (i.e. bureaucrats in the Home Office, working in tandem with big corporates). So it seems to me that the Tories will not repeal existing unjust laws, just as Nu-Labour didn't repeal those of the Tories. The Tories will likely continue with the status quo.

Now, THIS is the space that the LibDems should be entering - defence and promotion of LIBERAL DEMOCRACY, it's in their name for god's sakes. We had a more robust defence of same under Charlie on the booze, than we've had from Ming the Useless. It may not be a vote winner now, but it's the right thing to do.

It's interesting that the authors of Brave New World and 1984 set their dystopias in Britain.

BTW: good mentions above re: ineffectual opposition from Liberty and the pathetic 'analysis' on Nu-Labour's assualts on liberty we've had in the media, notably the BBC, which truly IS a state broadcaster, its quango-isation is just a figleaf, as the Hutton report demonstrated to us all.

PS: re: WWII postings above, while the Russians were not exactly fighting for liberty, their regime was a (slightly) lesser evil than that of the Nazis. And it is an inconvenient truth that the allies could not have won WWII without them. And, as a Kiwi, I must also acknowledge that without the Yanks at Midway, I wouldn't be writing this over a mug of Americano coffee in North london, I'd be too busy eating rice and building railways in Manchuria.

THAT generation knew how to fight for liberty. What can WE do now?

Slight modifications to my post on nz edge.com's blog (https://www.nzedge.blogspot.com)

https://www.nzedge.blogspot.com/

I love and miss NZ, and many of my fellow NZders, but it is telling that a sixth of us live abroad! That's a massive proportion of any nation's population. It's also telling that most of the Heroes on this site - amazing people - had to move abroad to achieve their goals. The tall poppy syndrome is a cliche, but it's a cliche because it's true. I see it as the hugely negative flipside of what is otherwise our admirable egalitarianism.

After living a decade in Europe, the extraordinarily dumbed down nature of the NZ public culture is actually a bit shocking, and potentially turns me off moving back. As does the crime (note the gangs feature here), which is rather high. Too high, for what we always present to the world as a southern seas paradise / idyll. Would that it were so, but NZ has too many problems to be so complacent. And yes, I know how pretentious my 'dumbed down' comments might make me sound to some people, but it's true.

Still, NZders can be extraordinarily open-minded, ingenious and proactive, as nzedge has shown us, I just wish we had more of that spirit in evidence at home today. Here's some free advice; it would be a good idea for the NZ Govt to look up the word 'infrastructure', and realise NZ needs some. It might also help if the govt reaslied that slapping GM or GE labels on our produce would be the kiss of death to our exports - in Europe, at least. It would also be a good idea if NZ people stopped obssessing to an almost dangerous degree about a minority sport (Rugby), and stopped faffing about with the America's Cup. Out here in the world, hardly anyone's heard of it. Certainly it shouldn't large sums of NZ taxpayer's money. It would also be nice if we could make a decent movie for once that wasn't about bloody hobbits.

I am not a hobbit, I'm a proud Kiwi. They do say patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, and despite the above comments, I am a patriotic NZder, but I also try to be clear-sighted about NZ's downsides. I think NZ's 'leaders' should be too.

Eh-Op

Testing, testing; 1, 2, 3