Bliar (stet), Brighton and Bullshit

Is it me or is the current Labour party conference just the most odorous load of old bullshit; a rally dressed up as an exercise in democracy. In fact, looking at the procession of media-micro-maneged non-entities mouthing inane platitudes to an audience of dead-eyed hacks reminded me of Tory conferences past. And, as if that were not enough, the spectacle of an 82-year-old pensioner being ejected using powers of the Terrorist Act, just because he dared to heckle Jack Straw (a man who frankly looks like he should be performing medical experiments in concentration camps), telling him he was talking, 'nonsense', was unedifiying to say the least. Being rather more forthcoming it was an act of the most heavy-handed, snivelling, craven cowardice that insists that any dissent whatsoever must be extinguished, lest it compromise the glorious passage of The Shining Leader Bliar. Of course, this morning there has been a fairly sharp climb-down, but it is too late; the damage is done.

Then of course, it seems as if the rank-and-file membership ar in revolt over plans to increase private sector participation in the NHS. The prospects of the Bliar government actually listening to anything the plebs say is as likely as Michael Jackson getting a job as a nursery supervisor. It seems as if the New Labour machine is now utterly unable to even admit that any kind of opposition to its blikered worldview exists.

The signs are clear: the Archbishop of Downing Street certainly vouchsafed his credo when he talked yesterday about, 'prtoecting the innocent' by offering them less protection under the law. It's much the same when he talks about protecting our way of life by removing the very civil liberties that are its very conerstone. All you have to do is look at the Terrorism Acts and the proposed ID legislation to see how Bliar sees them. I continually ask myself whether the Bliar government is simply stupid or whether there is a more insidious agenda at work that sees all of this happening. And it worries me enough to think whether this is a country where I want to raise my children.

Everytime I hear another stinking hypocritical platitude I am reminded of the words of Benjamin Franklin:

"Those who would surrender essential liberty for a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security"

He was bang on, wasn't he?