It Didn’t Take Long

While, on balance, I regarded a Conservative win as being preferable to a Labour one – or, God forbid, Labour propped up by the National Socialists north of the border, I had no illusions about the type of people they are. Politicians are power-hungry, venal opponents of liberty. And so it is with Theresa May, who was on the morning of the election victory forewarning us of her plans to clamp down on our freedoms. And so it comes to pass

It is fortunate that  some people on the green benches get it, and as it stands, with a reduced majority in the house and and enough rebel back benchers, this vile scheme will be defeated. Then there’s the Lords of course. We have less of a mountain to climb to defeat such evil compared to the days of massive majorities that existed during the Blair premiership.

That, however, is not the issue. The issue, is that this is even up for discussion. That these people have – again – forgotten the lessons of history. I mean…

May questioned what the BBC was doing in interviewing Choudary and said the government had to look at the role of Ofcom in relation to “what is being beamed into people’s homes”. But when the prime minister’s extremism task force reported in December 2013, it did not include any moves towards pre-broadcast censorship and the subject was presumed to have been dropped.

At the time the idea was compared to Margaret Thatcher’s move to tell broadcasters to deny terrorists the “oxygen of publicity”, which led to a full-scale row over a BBC decision to broadcast an extended interview with Martin McGuinness. That led to a journalists’ strike and, two years later, the resignation of the director general.

The broadcasters got around it before (remember the actor voice-overs?). And, frankly, what gets beamed into our rooms and what we look at is none of May’s business. But, worse, does she not recall that when we were able to listen to McGuinness and Adams slithering and wriggling in their attempts to justify cold-blooded murder, we were able to see them for what they were – evil little shits – and make our judgements accordingly? Censored – properly censored – we would have no idea what they were saying. Likewise, with Choudary. I want to see more of him spouting his indefensible, risible cockwaffle on the television. Go on, call for a  Caliphate and Sharia law in the UK, please, go ahead, be my guest. For he does more harm  to his cause than good when he  does.

That’s how freedom works. We make our own judgements based upon the evidence before us. We do not need Theresa May to protect us from the bad words. What we need is for Theresa May to remind herself of some basic lessons in good governance. She might start with the founding fathers, who knew far more then than she does now.

3 Comments

  1. I’m certainly with you with respect of freedom of speech. May is apallingly anti-liberty.
    I’m less in agreement when it comes to what the BBC can broadcast because they are not part of the free market and we are forced to pay for them and their propaganda.

  2. I have just watched the (ironically) BBC programme “Britain’s Greatest Generation”. Perhaps the most poignant comment made was towards the end (as close as I can remember): “Freedom has to be fought for because, once it’s gone, it can never be returned.”

    And we sit down and let those, like May and those before her (many in Bliar’s government), chip away at it – even encouraging them to take yet more away, all for our safety. Who was it who said, “Those who would sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither”?

Comments are closed.