One of the great irritants of the ongoing ‘war on terror’ is the regular appearance of conveniently-time briefings from ministers and (despicably) from senior police officers about the threat from terrorism. The latest example being particularly risible. I mean talk about figures just plucked from the air – fifty years? Of course one would hardly expect someone whose job depends on persuading us of the threat to say, “No need to panic, it’s all in hand – by the way this is where to send the P45″ would one?

You have to love the way so much of this depends on veiled references to ‘secret intelligence’, particularly when they bring up ‘plots which have been foiled’. Strange how these foiled plots never seem to lead to any arrests or prosecutions isn’t it? Add to this the ‘friend of a friend who knows someone in the Met’ rumours and we have a whole mass of people basically just making shit up. As an aside, how on earth do they keep getting away with references to the completely fictitious ‘ricin plot’.

Meanwhile Safety says, “We have to hope expect the threat of terrorism to be with us for many years.”

At times it’s hard to think of a fate suitable for mendacious little creeps like these. Lying has just become a way of life for them – they’ve got away with it for so long, and they don’t seem to see a problem, because they believe they are lying in a good cause. So they continue to lie, invent and exaggerate because it’s all for our own good. I was brought up to believe (and have generally found) that honesty is the best policy. Obviously NuLab believe in saving the best till last.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
C. S. Lewis

Well it seems in short supply amongst UK politicians these days. But here’s a few inspiring quotes I found:

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt

Strange how often we go back to 18th and 19th century writers when looking to the defence of liberty, as if the 20th century were largely the province of totalitarian thought.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purpose is beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
Louis Dembitz Brandeis

“Well-meaning but without understanding” probably sums up New Labour. Ignorance and arrogance combined, a deadly mix.

Time to start a new blog. Time to join together and do what we can to get New Labour out. Time to begin the fight for liberty while we still have some freedoms left. And just now feeling a little bit inspired by the sudden coming together in UK blogworld. But what do we do? Three years at least to the next election, and NuLab are entrenched behind their inordinate majority passing one illiberal law after another. It still astonishes me that so few Labour MPs seem to think this is a problem.

A number of random thoughts… who was it said politics was ‘showbusiness for ugly people’? There’s a certain cruel truth in that. In particular the constant need politicians seem to have to be in the public eye, rather than actually doing the job they are paid for (you know, scrutinising legislation, managing departments of state). I wonder if a lot of this is the consequence of a combination of a more pervasive mass media and essentially weak characters – such that the semblance of activity becomes more important than the effectiveness of the action. Thus we have a constant stream of new legislation, and little attention paid to the enforcement of the laws that already exist – if it’s just the plods doing their job, then it looks like the ministers aren’t doing anything. Of course if our politicians weren’t such feeble wretches, it wouldn’t matter so much, since they wouldn’t feel driven to do something, anything, to give the impression of activity. And was there ever a nation ruled over by such a set of political and intellectual pygmies?

It’s hard to know where to turn. I can’t say that Cameron inspires any confidence, and looks to be all too much just Blair-lite, and all too lukewarm in his defence of liberty. Of course all parties have their authoritarian wing. The political landscape has changed for many of us now. Let’s be honest – the economic argument is over. All that remains is the details, and though they are significant, they are not of supreme importance. The key fight in the days ahead is no longer a question of left or right – the vital question is liberty or authority. I know where I stand, and I know what I fear for the future of my children.