My how the Labour party and their propaganda wing the BBC love to portray any disagreement over Europe as a "SPLIT". The BBC seem less keen to report the current serious disagreements within the Labour party as a split. In case you don't know what is happening, here's a summary. Four Labour MPs and ex-Ministers Frank Field, Kate Hoey , Gisella Stuart & Graham Stringer are supporting local referendums, as part of the I Want A Referendum campaign, on the EU Treaty/Constitution in marginal seats held by prominent Labour MPs and ministers. Last week the "rebels" were called by Labour Chief Whip Geoff Hoon and threatened with having the party whip withdrawn from them, the same punishment David Cameron handed out to Derek Conway.
It is rumoured that Geoff Hoon has reported the new "Gang of Four" to Labour's Parliamentary Committee, which meets on Wednesdays after PMQs. I recall the Gang of Four, because it was the leaving of the Labour party by Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rogers in 1981 that doomed their old party to many years out of government. In 2008 I do not see the new Gang of Four starting their own party or even joining the Liberal Democrats (being the party that has evolved from the original Gang of Four's SDP). What I could see is Kate Hoey and Frank Field joining the Conservative party, a party that seems to share more of their political views than the statist Labour party.
So your argument is that because free speech is even more restricted in China and Iran I shouldn't complain about it being more restricted here then hitherto; that is a logical fallacy. Your claim that there is more free speech now because of the internet is also fallacious. We may have the freedom (for now) to write on the web but our freedom of speech elsewhere have been restricted severely. You may want to consider the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act which banned protest without prior permit within 1km of Parliament and lead to Maya Evans being convicted for READING out the names of people killed in Iraq. You may also want to consider how the doctrine of political correctness is restricting the rights of people to speak plain English. You may want to consider how the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill 2004 has made it possible to charge comedians with inciting religious hatred for making jokes about Muslims or members of other religions.
ReplyDeleteThat's just three examples off the top of my head, I am sure there are more.
The fact that you ended your comment with such a well-reasoned comment as "You're an idiot" I think may speak volumes for your powers of reason.