This is Getting Serious

Laws are being misused. The terrorism laws keep being used for other purposes. In this country, the United Kingdom, we have an opposition politician, a shadow minister, Damian Green held for nine hours by the Metropolitan police because he received documents via the usual leaking methods and part of the process of holding the government to account. David Cameron at the last Prime Minister's Questions had a document that showed the government considered a VAT rate of 18.5 and even 20% as part of the governments throttling of any recovery of the economy in 2010. He did not receive that as part of a government daily handout.

Not only was this politician questioned for so long, with his two houses and offices searched, but whilst the London Mayor Boris Johnson, Leader of the Opposition David Cameron, and House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin were informed, the government apparently knew nothing. Yeah, pull the other one, nor will Gordon Brown's "purely a police matter" strike anyone with credibility. In fact it is sinister. Plus all this happened during an actual terrorist incident in Mumbai, India, where all the news media was focused.

The reason civil servants keep leaking documents is because the government is dishonest. It does not tell the truth, but keeps dodging and weaving. In the House of Commons government ministers talk about the opposition policies, instead of defending what they do.

Here is a passage from 1984 by George Orwell that describes Gordon Brown only too well:

But always... there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

George Orwell (1961), 1984, New American Library, 270)

Even if Gordon Brown and his debt ridden ways as means of recovery succeeded in kick starting the economy, and not throttling it a year later, I would not vote for him or his party. We need a clear out of the political process, the refreshment that a two or three party system brings. This government has forgotten what political pluralism means. That's if we keep a two or three party system, when politicians doing their work are going to be arrested.