Chicken Yoghurt: New Labour: A Home Fit For Heroes

New Labour: A Home Fit For Heroes

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

As I said yesterday, this wasn't a conference, this was a rally. An ugly, self-serving, demagogic rally. Conference implies dialogue. New Labour members are merely the oil in the cogs, the envelope stuffers, the door knockers. They'll shut up and do what they're told or there's a big bloke nearby who can teach them a lesson. There's your culture of respect right there. As Tony Blair said in his speech yesterday:

Respect is about more than crime. It's about the loss of a value which is a necessary part of any strong community; proper behaviour; good conduct; the unselfish notion that the other person matters.

The other person didn't matter today though, did he? I'm sorry but I'll crawl on broken glass before I take lessons in morality from these people.

Age, it seems, is no barrier to being intimidated. Expect the wall of plausible deniability to come up immediately. This will be some minor party official's fault. So sorry. But somebody sent the message out that the likes of Straw are so robust in their sensibilities, so sure of their methods that they must be protected by men who would physically assault 82 year-old Walter Wolfgang.

Assault, by the way, is "a hostile act that causes another person to fear attack." It doesn't even have to involve physical contact and is a crime punishable summarily by up to six months in prison.

If I went up to Walter in the street and started dragging him about, I could expect to be sitting in a cell very soon afterwards. Don't expect the sad bastard, sorry, brave soul who pulled and pushed Walter around in order to protect Jack's honour to be treated in the same way. Punishment for such behaviour is for the proles, not party thugs hired to stamp on dissent. "Proper behaviour" and "good conduct" are for the Great Unwashed. Know your place.

How about this, from today's Guardian Backbencher email bulletin:

The strange thing is that, while the heckling could be heard from the hall, it was impossible to hear on the television coverage. The microphones have been set up so it wasn't recorded. Mr Straw just looked briefly uncomfortable on TV.

See, the rally isn't even about the people sitting in the audience. The delegates are there to make the slaw-jawed electorate think Straw can work a crowd. They're Astroturf. This is about making the likes of the highly charismatic Jack Straw play well on the TV.

Hollow, bullying, preening, vain and morally corrupt. New Labour. Did I tell you they run the country?

UPDATE: "Police later used powers under the Terrorism Act to prevent Mr Wolfgang's re-entry, but he was not arrested."

My partner and I control the quantity of sweets my daughter eats because we know that, at five years of age, she lacks the maturity to regulate her consumption by herself and would end up risking her health if given free rein. She has to learn there is a time and a place for sweets.

Now, there may be some who will disagree with me and I'd enjoy seeing them make the case, but this use of the Terrorism Act, to prevent this man's re-entry to the conference is an abuse of those powers. They are there to prevent terrorism not stifle dissent or intimidate old people. It's not the first instance of such abuse and it probably won't be the last. New Labour lack the maturity to regulate the use of these powers - they're very handy when you want to get into a dick-swinging contest with an octogenarian.

As Charlie Whitaker said the other day: Is this frog boiling?

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9 Comments:

On September 29, 2005 9:32 AM, Gavin Ayling said...

You say: "I'm sorry but I'll crawl on broken glass before I take lessons in morality from these people." But that's no big surprise - anyone in their right mind would ;-)

On September 29, 2005 1:35 PM, margin walker said...

You know things are bad for democracy when something like this happens at a conference..

On September 29, 2005 2:27 PM, Tim said...

This is not going to end well:
Please excuse the very long post.

On September 29, 2005 3:14 PM, Anonymous said...

It was worse than that: according to one TV report, somneone was claiming that the guy was aksed three times to pipe down - a claimn completely squashed by everyone who was actually there at the time. (Shades of the attempt to trash, say, David Kelly or anyone else who challenges the regime?)

On September 29, 2005 7:08 PM, Disillusioned kid said...

Good post, although you seem to be a little confused about the legal definition of assault (unsurprisingly given how silly it is).

As you point out assault doesn't require physical contact merely the apprehension of imminent violence. As soon as there is physical contact your talking about battery. As such there's a good case for this being an assault and battery, at least technically (although I doubt a magistrate or jury would convict).

Legality aside this is New labour reaching new lows of cuntishness. Can they get any lower? No doubt we'll get to see them try.

On September 29, 2005 7:12 PM, Disillusioned kid said...

Oh, and according to Reuters Wolfgang was briefly *arrested* under anti-terrorist laws.

On September 30, 2005 12:28 PM, Uponnothing said...

As usual a nice turn of phrase to describe the 'conference'. It seems to me that the terror laws passed by New Labour are simply a way of politicising the Police Force, as they now have powers that they do not really understand. The laws are not easily (if at all) definable, and therefore the police have no choice but to follow the interpretations handed down from New Labour. Consequently the police find themselves carrying out the political will of New Labour - quelling dissent etc - under the belief that they are really fighting terrorism.

It won't be long before Blair does create his private army along the lines of Hitler's SA...

On September 30, 2005 2:45 PM, dearkitty said...