The Glorious Bans
There is obviously something in the water cooler at the Home Office as all the ministers who sit in that particular hot seat appear to turn into swivelled-eyes fascist loons, hell bent on oppressing the population.
The current incumbent, one Theresa May, is best know for her taste in shoes, although she had a career in finance before becoming a professional politician.
Whilst we should not forget that soon after her appointment last year there was some good news, such as the scraping of ID Cards and ContactPoint, the attitude to freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of association simply appears to be a continuation of the behaviour we came to expect from the last government.
In the last 18 months the bans of such activities have included:
- Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik, in June 2010
- Marches by the English Defence League (EDL) in Bradford, August 2010
- The organisation Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), from midnight on 2011-11-11
Now I have no time for any of those people or organisations, considering them all to be utterly reprehensible, but banning them just tells them that you are afraid of what they might say or do.
I realise that it is a cliché to quote Voltaire in these situations but more appropriate words, I know not:
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.
On this day, when we remember those who died to protect us from those who would suppress us, it is disturbing to think that our politicians have completely forgotten that it is for freedoms such as this that millions of their countrymen and those from other countries around the world died.
Shame on them for doing so, shame on us for letting it happen.
You really should try to get to know the EDL a little better before including them in your list, they are not as the media like to portray them as knuckle dragging drunken, racist football hooligans.
QM, they undoubtedly have a bit of an ‘image problem’, which can’t be laid completely at the feet of the media…
I’d be the first to admit they aren’t plaster saints as Kipling so quaintly described working men, but sadly much of their image problem stems directly from the media and those who oppose them, the recent demos poll mentioned here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/30/edl-heart-facebook?newsfeed=true gives a slightly better indication of who and what the EDL are about including details that a third at least are educated to degree level and most of their activity is in the realms of keyboard warrior.
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/insidetheedl
I included the EDL Bradford marches in my list of things banned because our beloved overlords did so ban them, thus demonstrating that their suppression of freedoms affects many groups.
Whether I like the EDL or not is irrelevant. What I object to – which was the point of this posting – is the actions of the State. By attempting to interfere in the basic rights of people and organisations, the State is demonstrating that it is no better than what it claims it is protecting us from.
“On this day, when we remember those who died to protect us from those who would suppress us, it is disturbing to think that our politicians have completely forgotten that it is for freedoms such as this that millions of their countrymen and those from other countries around the world died.”
Well said.
More to life than shoes, as Trixy would say.
Rubbish! 🙂