26 April 2005
The idea and practice of Britain as a liberal country has always
been
under threat but it has taken a Labour prime minister to secure its
demise. For Tony Blair, principles and ideas have become impediments
to the continuance of his lust for power.
His scorn for liberal Britain is surprising for one who had
an
expensive liberal education and who entered politics as an aspirant
liberal lawyer, an ardent member of CND and a standard-bearer for
the left.
People such as myself should have realised the writing was on
the wall
when a Labour government twice tried to abolish trial by jury. From
there, it was a short step for Blair (but a huge step for the rest of
us) to get suppliant backbench Labour MPs to vote for an unlawful war,
the setting up of a gulag at Belmarsh for foreigners and deprivation of
liberty through "control orders" and "pass laws" for British
citizens.
I voted against the war on Iraq and it becomes clearer every
day that
Blair decided to go to war after meeting [President George] Bush on
his Texas ranch in 2002. After that he lied to persuade the country
to support him.
The stomach-turning lies on Iraq were followed by the attempt
to use
the politics of fear to drive through Parliament a deeply authoritarian
set of law and order measures that reminded me of the Star Chamber. The
Star Chamber used torture but at least they allowed a proper trial
before throwing someone into prison.
That is when I decided enough was enough. I've been a Labour
MP for
more than a quarter of a century. In my last speech in Parliament,
I described New Labour's descent into Hell and added that Hell was
not a place where I wanted to be.
Some MPs thought it was just rhetoric. It wasn't. I meant it.
I am going to leave the Labour Party and join the Liberal Democrats
so I can help them in this election campaign. To my former comrades,
I say, 'Sorry but all nightmares have to end'.
I'm renouncing Tony Blair, the Devil, New Labour and all their
works. I
don't do this lightly. I know that some of my friends will be angry,
and I will be rubbished by the New Labour spin machine. Mad Dog [John]
Reid will be set on me. John Prescott will say, "Brian? Brian who?"
But I can let them into a secret. I am not alone. A small group
of us -
all MPs who are standing down - decided we would leave the Labour Party
immediately after the election. Among the MPs, there are 150 who loathe
Mr Blair, 50 more who have grave doubts about him and a further 200 who
love him. They are sometimes called the Clones or the Stepford Wives.
For some of us, it's not just about the war, it's about top-up
fees
and privatising the health service. We were going to issue a joint
statement. That would have been the easiest thing for me to do but
I believe I owe it to the voters to speak out now.
Tony Blair's lies over the war on Iraq, and his careless destruction
of liberty have left me disgusted with the party I joined in 1968.
The public are clearly nauseated by what they see at Westminster
and the number of abstentions will be colossal in the election,
but nobody should blame the electorate for that.
The public are surely right to hold modern politics and politicians
in ill-repute. They've realised that Jonathan Swift was close to the
truth when he said that "all politicians ultimately die of swallowing
their own lies".
Those who listen to the Today programme know that most modern
politicians would rather plead the fifth amendment than directly
answer even the simplest of questions.
And why should people vote when they see increasing evidence
of
fraud in the postal ballot system created by the government which,
said a judge, was a "disgrace to a banana republic".
The problem with Tony Blair is that he tells big porkies as
easily
as he tells little porkies, whether it is watching Jackie Milburn
play football, or being certain of the existence of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.
He drags in the hapless Attorney General to back him up on the
legality of the war. Lord Goldsmith says he was not leant on. The
Attorney General can protest his innocence until the end of time,
and people won't believe him, and neither do I.
But Blair is shameless. He used to act at school and he uses
that
talent now; every time he speaks, for example, at the death of Diana,
Princess of Wales you can hear someone saying, "Cue broken voice,
quivering lips, dropped shoulder, tear in left eye".
Blair used to be a constituent of mine and used to run around
saying,
"We have got to get Tony Benn elected". He stood for secretary for
the local party. He got old ladies in the cars to vote for him,
and he lost. It was only later when he used [Peter] Mandelson that
he began to learn the organisational skills he used to take over the
party and surrounded himself with second-raters or cronies.
Blair showed his contempt for the law by appointing an unholy
trinity
of home secretaries who have been deeply flawed:
Jack Straw was simply not up to the job. David Blunkett saw
himself
as some sort of deified demi-god, issuing new commandments on a daily
basis for the six o'clock news.
And then there's poor Charlie Clarke, a bit of a chump preaching
the politics of fear who was dealt a cruel hand by Blunkett over the
Terrorism Act.
He is keeping very quiet during this election campaign for some
reason. Charles was the housing chairman in Hackney when I was the
MP and to describe him as bloody useless would be to heap high praise
on him.
Some say I should have stayed for things to change under Gordon
Brown. The "Iron Chancellor" has a massive intellect but no
backbone. He stayed carefully away from the difficult issues:- the
nature of parliamentary democracy; the illegal war; the denial of
trial by jury; Belmarsh, the control orders and pass laws.
And John Prescott - the defender of the left - has done a Faustian
deal with the Devil for the price of a cup of tea and a pat on the
back from Tony.
It is against this background that I finally decided I could
no longer
support the Labour Government and would join the Liberal Democrats
to work for a nobler vision of Britain.
Look at Blair standing in the shadow of Gordon Brown and you
can see
the power ebbing away from him. He is now an empty husk who should
be thrown on the scrapheap of history.
Norman Lamont delivered the coup de grâce to John Major
with the words,
"He is in office, but not in power". Tony Blair is in power but is
pursuing it without a shred of principle.
Is it any wonder I urge everyone from the centre and left in
British
politics to give Blair a bloody nose at the election and to vote
Liberal Democrat to ensure the tawdry New Labour project is dead?
Vote against Blair and New Labour.
Persuade others to do the same.
Express yourself.
Make a stand.
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SEE HERE ..............
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=633038
for confirmation of these facts if you feel the need