Blunkett

Today is one of those days where I feel like singing that song from The Wizard of Oz, "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead". The news that Blunkett has been forced to resign is fantastic isn't it? It also seems very just that the man who is actively campaigning against 'asylum seekers' and immigrants has come unstuck by helping someone through the immigration process. Hmm.. hey David, here's something for you to think about - if we are being 'flooded' with immigrants as you and the Daily Mail suggest, why did you feel the need to get someone in and accelerate the process of doing so? If we are 'flooded' with such people, all of whom are sponging off benefits, why didn't you just select one of those? Could it be because you are actually lying about the whole immigrant thing, or at least exaggerating? Heaven forbid. Anyway, it's interesting that the only people who have anything nice to say about him are the police. I bet they found laws allowing them to lock people up without charge or trial quite useful.

Having said all that, the new Home Secretary Charles Clarke might not be much better. He's almost as authoritarian as Blunkett, although not quite (well, who is?). It doesn't look like he has any plans not to force in compulsory ID cards, but at least he distanced himself from Blunkett's most outrageously Orwellian comments about freedom being 'airy fairy' and so on. We can but hope for a better future.

Surprise surprise, today the Conservatives announced their support for compulsory ID cards. Well we all knew that Howard was a big fan all along of course, seeing as he tried to bring in ID cards himself. Of course back then the Labour party weren't verging on Fascism, so he was rightly challenged. These days the main parties are falling over themselves to see who can take away all of our rights and freedoms fastest of course, so it is natural for the 'opposition' to agree with the government on this. Again.

People need to think very hard, come the general election. Without thinking about it too much they will throw all of our hard-earned freedoms away by voting for one of the main parties, somehow thinking that they are making the sensible choice. I'm afraid that voting Labour or Conservative in the coming election will be a vote for the forces of fear, hatred, denial of rights, and the rise of the far right. The fact that people can't see this is beyond comprehension. Wake up people! Why can't you see what is happening?!

For people who are 'ok' with ID cards because they have 'done nothing wrong'... well, I'm afraid that they are stupid, selfish idiots. There's no other way to say it. It is your duty to protect those in society who are persecuted (as people are in these days without trials and juries). Not to do so is disgusting. We should all bear in mind this quite by the German anti-fascist Martin Niemoller:

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

Conservative and Labour voters, this is the Britain you are building. Shame on you all.