They Hate Us for Our Freedoms, most definitely

A couple of groups of indebted tossers I didn’t mention in my earlier post were the Labour and Conservative parties.

According to the Electoral Commission the Tories (the people behind Sort-It) owe £35m and the Labour party owes £23m.

What’s particularly amusing about the prospect of one or both of our main political parties going bankrupt is that NOBODY GIVES A FLYING FUCK IF THEY DO GO BUST.

After all they've done for us, eh? How ungrateful is that?

In fact, I suspect more than one or two people quite relish the prospect. Given all the unrepresentative crap we’ve been subject to in this country for the last couple of decades, even the slightest possibility of our faux bipartisan political system crumbling because the two parties have busted themselves paying for one glossy advert too many is, quite frankly, delightful.

Admittedly, it would be like watching Al Capone go down for tax evasion rather than racketeering and murder but, fuck it, beggars can’t be choosers.

Our ruling political party was elected by just a fifth of the eligible population, more votes were cast against it than for it, yet it still commands an absolute parliamentary majority and, worst of all, a large number of its constituent MPs have continued to support wank legislation and rank behaviour that they know full well to be morally repugnant.

Fuck ‘em.

It would almost be worth embracing my Catholic upbringing just so I could start believing in Hell and fantasise about all those bastards burning there one day.

Backingblair, the website and campaign set up by people loyal to what they thought were Labour Party principles, as opposed to the principles of the Blair government, shut up shop a while ago. Which is a shame as I just loved their videos – especially this one and this one. Oh, and this one.



... and definitely this one

To quote from their closing statement on the Backingblair homepage (which is worth reading in full)…


There are a number of things that the Blair government has condoned, allowed, enabled or instigated ... that are well out of order; 'little' things like pre-emptive military strikes, the use of media, black propaganda and even legislation to stifle dissent, detention without trial, torture and murder... we could go on and on.

Apparently we were supposed to stand by and let all of this happen so we didn't undermine the Labour Party.

Sorry, but no.

The best way to address the problem was to call Tony Blair to account - and do so while he still held office. This would have sent a message that governance through lies, spin and fear simply wouldn't be tolerated.

Sadly, it now appears that the majority of our representatives are so power-hungry, cowardly, browbeaten and/or hamstrung that Blair will be allowed to leave quietly via the back door. This disgraceful state of affairs has done more to undermine the Labour Party than anything we could have managed.

It also leaves us with a big problem; the next set of dirt-bags who gain overall power will operate knowing that they can mislead the public on a grand scale (with the most severe of consequences) and still remain in power.


Actually, I think the people behind Backingblair are selling themselves short. Blogs and activist sites like Backingblair currently seem to be the most annoying thing on politicians’, and journalists’, radar. Both groups seem to be obsessed with blogs and are bending over backwards in their attempts to subvert or hijack the medium.

Hence the proliferation of me-too websites and blogs set up by political parties which are, without exception, mendacious, tedious and crap and the curiously ambivalent approach taken by ‘serious’ news outlets which involves flip-flopping between saying how shit amateur content is and announcing initiatives to scrounge submissions of User (i.e. unpaid for) Content.

What neither group, politicians or journalists, is willing to face up to is that an ever-growing number of people think that most politicians and journalists are lying, self-serving bastards and are frustrated that, thanks to our voting system and our buttoned-down media, they cannot express their contempt in a constructive way.

Which is a very good thing indeed. Not as an end in itself but as milestone towards maybe creating something better.

I wouldn’t, however, recommend holding our breath waiting for politicians or journalists to help create something better. What they would much prefer doing is finding a way of shutting us all up. Tony Blair’s ex Chief Strategy Adviser, Matthew Taylor, gave a blinding interview on the subject of political net content a few weeks ago..


Web Fuelling Crisis in Politics

"We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government,"

…

"The internet has immense potential but we face a real problem if the main way in which that potential expresses itself is through allowing citizens to participate in a shrill discourse of demands.

…

"What is the big breakthrough, in terms of politics, on the web in the last few years? It's basically blogs which are, generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.

"The internet is being used as a tool of mobilisation, which is fantastic, but it only adds to the growing, incommensurate nature of the demands being made on government."


Personally, the only demand I would make of Taylor is that he go fuck himself and learn some humility in the process.

On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn’t write things like that. Maybe I should subject myself to some kind of Voluntary Code. The kind of Voluntary Code for Blogs being advocated by the likes of the Press Complaints Commission and that most saintly and truthful of public figures Alastair Campell.

No, I've just thought about and after careful consideration I've decided that they can go fuck themselves too

with thanks to Disillusioned and Bored

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And for a taste of how the same debate is being advanced by our American cousins I strongly recommend watching this clip of former Speaker Newt Gingrich explaining why Americans should do-away with free speech, particularly on the Internet, before one of their cities is destroyed by terrorists.

Twat

Yes indeed, free expression really can destroy cities.

Could you make it up if you tried?

Well, at least it makes for a pleasant change from invoking the threat of on-line paedophiles. Maybe it’s their turn to be cited as the reason for clamping down on what people can say and do next week.

The Paedo-Finder General - serious about child safety

Or maybe it’s the turn of on-line file sharing networks.

I lose track.

Just who is it who hates us for our freedoms again?

I lose track of that as well.

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And as I've maxed out on the swears in this post I may as well go the whole hog and gratuitously slap in this photo that's been sitting in my 'to upload' pile for ages now...


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