The Tipping Point
Last week's votes in parliament and the introduction of the introduction of the terrifying Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has been the tipping point for many people. The point where you say we can take no more of New Labour, they must go.
We're working with many others on a strategy to bring about a change in our electoral system and political practices. We'll make an announcement shortly.
An interesting read is the Comment by Henry Porter in today's Observer:
...t is worth remembering that Tony Blair's mandate derives from just 35 per cent of the votes cast in the last election. This may indeed be the price we pay for having a careless and inexact parliamentary system, but no Prime Minister in the past 100 years has taken so much power for himself and with such an awesome sense of entitlement...
... People insist that we are not living in a police state but perhaps that is rather a 20th-century notion. What we are pioneering in Britain is a 21st-century version of the police state - the controlled state.
I implore you to realise that the fight is on to save our society from this nightmare, to put your fears into perspective and to make every politician understand that this is something the people will not tolerate. There has not been a more important struggle in Britain in the past 50 years.
It's time.
Update:
The discussions between bloggers has been constructive and a very broad range of political positions have come together to form a broad based campaign for constitutional change and debate. for more information check out this post on Talk Politics.
We are launching a campaign for people to send a clear message to Labour that their authoritarianism and lack of respect for civil liberties is no longer acceptable and vote for Anyone But Labour.
Good - this needs to be
Good - this needs to be organised properly, of course. There's scope for a non-partisan group to defend British democratic principles - the only thing is that whenever I imagine it it's using the same imagery as the BNP or UKIP (what do you call it - 'British Freedom', 'Defending Britain' or some such?) which really won't do. Still, I'm not very imaginative.
It's got to be:
focused - no point sorting out Guantanamo or Israel-Palestine or Iraq if it's all going to shit back home. Not that these issues aren't important, but you can't do everything at once. The more issues you try and address, the more likely you are to have splits. Concentrate on one or two core issues - lack of democratic representation and the abuse of executive power, perhaps.
polished - this is the era of branding and image, unfortunately. However, the Internet is the way to go here, we know the methods, apply them. Regular mailings, website, wiki, blogs, events, radio/TV appearances. The aim should be to disabuse the public of the incorrect notions the Government has spun into them - this means seeking the truth behind headlines and refuting as fast as possible and as publicly as possible. Rapid rebuttal, in fact, an idea we can nick from New Labour with a clear conscience.
wide-ranging - we need to involve people who know people from the press to the House of Lords to local councils, which is where the next generation of New Labour proto-Gauleiters are being groomed. Perhaps even 'celebrities' (yuk) who've spoken out in the past, such as Stephen Fry.
informed - we need people like the no2id guys who know where the like-minded people in Parliament are - obviously these are mainly Lib Dems at the moment, but there are enough Tories about to whom this will appeal, particularly in the 'defend Britain from Labour' element, which speaks to their deeps. They might persuade Dave Cameron to stop blatting on about consensus for a bit and do some Opposition. It's also in the Tories' interest to support PR, which needs explaining, as 9 years of absolute Labour rule on a declining share of the vote still haven't convinced them.
well-connected - there are plenty of other organisations with similar or overlapping aims - Amnesty, Liberty, no2id, craigmurray etc. They have much more experience.
legal advice - would be extremely useful - although I wouldn't advise breaking the law, a bunch of innocent people arrested should be a gift the Government should be scared of presenting us with, particularly with us backed by well-argued legal opinion. I'd like them to think that an illegitimate arrest on Saturday means a question in Parliament on Wednesday.
Indeed, for far too long
Indeed, for far too long Blair & Co have been getting away with all sorts of monstrosities, with the support of his lackeys.
There are also reports that they are negotiating with Microsoft to get access to people's computers via the back entrance. This nightmare must end:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/02/15/131222.shtml
Blair did NOT get 35% of the
Blair did NOT get 35% of the AVAILABLE vote in May elections, he got only 20 something %. We need to add in the people who did not vote at all. Hardly an endorsement for Blair. I suppose he thinks he has lots of 'political capital' to spend, like his boss George II
We Conservative Bloggers are
We Conservative Bloggers are trying to raise a stir about this:
http://rightlinks.co.uk/linked/modules/AMS/index.php
But what we all need to do is to support each other over the things that we agree on, the Sovereignty of Parliament being one of them.