The 5-minute blog break
Peter Hitchens argues with (and writes) his own Wikipedia entry.***
Will hopefully get the chance to attack this Observer article this evening - it's not everyday you get to fisk the Prime Minister. But then, he's asking for it:
There is a charge, crafted by parts of the right wing and now taken up by parts of the left, that New Labour is authoritarian
No?! Never?!
posted by Femme de Resistance @ 7:05 am
2 Comments:
At 4:47 pm ,
Tedj said...
My dad's from Wales. ANy chance you guys could make a post on Welsh Nationalism?
At 1:37 pm ,
Tristan said...
Its interesting the Blair uses the similar sort of 'redefining liberty' argument that Mussolini used.
The 'statist-left' used it as well, with people like Laski redefining economic 'freedom' to be dependency upon the state.
The argument that liberty is dependent upon state control of that liberty is the argument of an authoritarian. Liberties are not granted by the state, they are merely taken away or protected by the state. All this government does is take them away and give a pale immitation in return.
This government is rather luke-warm on the Human Rights Act, devolution and Freedom of Information too.
The Human Rights Act is increasingly seen as a barrier to what the government wishes (although parliament can overturn aspects of it I believe). Interference in the devolved authorities is endemic in the government and the FOI is ignored as much as possible, denying access or even the existence of material is the default with the overload of work on the Information Commissioner serving to put people off pursuing this further.
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