So that fine old chartist Frank Mc Manus warns us that the price of democracy is eternal vigilance and if we don't watch out we'll all become slaves of a ruling caste. Funny, I always thought we already were slaves of a ruling caste. Switch on any TV or radio, read any paper and you will find nothing but the pontifications of the powerful and influential on the subject of what is needed in Britain to protect the British from themselves. The so called 'war on terror', 'tackling global warming' The endless PC rantings of road safety and public health pundits are all part of a massive vegan econazi conspiracy busily creating an eco/techno totalitarianism, designed to reduce the average citizen (sorry 'subject') of this Sceptered Isle to the level of a mere barcode number on some policemans computer. What they would really like is a chip implanted in your head that will upload them information about everything you think and enable them to download to you everything they want you to think.
This is not about party politics. Party politics have become history. Show me the party that does not agree that we need to 'tackle global warming' by bringing in draconian (and profitable) laws in the futile and hypocritical guise of controlling the weather! Show me the party that says that the terror threat to this country is overrated, and did not even exist before we joined Mr. Bush in his wars. Show me the party that says we could tackle the problem simply by bringing our lads home.
There is no alternative – all the parties offer the same old PC crap in different wrappers. So do all the TV channels and national tabloids. At best it's an arrogant paternalism and worst its crank inspired lunacy! With each passing month the great and the good of England's Rome stealthily grant themselves more and more draconian powers. Its all the little acorns that we let them get away with, things like the smoking ban, like having to pay above and beyond our normal taxes for every minor public facility we might want to enjoy. Like being treated like foreigners when we enter our own country. The list goes on and on, steadily alienating ordinary decent people and eroding their respect for the law. Now they want to take DNA and fingerprints for offences like dropping litter, or driving at 32 mph in a built up area. All for our own good of course! Mr McManus is right in saying that we need to be vigilant. But the ever increasing vigilance of our rulers is weighted to serve them, not us. Unfortunately the people who can see what's going on are being excluded from society at every level, and real politics sits outside the smoke free taproom.. Democracy? Wake up Frank!
Jim Jarratt
