Dear Reader,
I really did not expect to meet God ever… but I did…earlier today… I was reading an article in The Guardian – after pulling a most enjoyable allnighter – and there he was, staring out,the familiar messianic grin…. it was Tony Blair explaining that he would have found an argument to justify invading Iraq even if there had been no weapons of mass destruction, which there weren’t as we now know (and some say, was known to Blair et al at the time).
The trouble with politicans, not all of them, is that they start to get a bit of a ‘self-importance complex’ and it just gets worse the further up the ladder they go. The latest nonsense – but VERY SERIOUS nonsense – concerns a new section 124H Communications Act 2003 (Clause 11 Digital Economy Bill) which would, if passed, give sweeping powers to the Secretary of State. I quote, unashamedly, from Francis Davey’s EXCELLENT analysis because he puts it so well and the full piece is worth reading for anyone even casually concerned with freedom of speech and a free internet.
It begins:
(1) The Secretary of State may at any time by order impose a technical obligation on internet service providers if the Secretary of State considers it appropriate in view of—Pausing there. Note that this says nothing at all about copyright infringement. For example the power could be used to:
- order ISP’s to block any web page found on the Internet Watch Foundation’s list
- block specific undesireable sites (such as wikileaks)
- block specific kinds of traffic or protocols, such as any form of peer-to-peer
- throttle the bandwidth for particular kinds of serivce or to or from particular websites.
In short, pretty much anything.
Tiger Woods is a great golfer. He has a few ‘issues’ with his wife and his personal conduct – which, frankly, I believe should be a private matter, BUT should not impact on everyone else through the use of superinjunctions. What I do not want to see in our country is libel (and privacy) lawyers threatening all and sundry with ‘hell and damnation, contempt of court, prison, seizure of assets et al’ because some golfer fucks up and people want to to ‘extract the Michael’ . Life is rather more serious, valuable and important than that. We need to get a grip on superinjunctions, libel and freedom of the press. Guido does what Guido does – and well done.
We have a lot of MPs in our country who are not government ministers…. I would like some of these MPs to do something really valuable for us (and in doing so get back some respect) and stand up for our law, reform it, so that our judges and our laws are not made to look ridiculous by people on Twitter, by people in other countries (where English High Court writs do not run) publicising the very things we should – as people who live on Earth, FREE, be entitled to know. I have no problem with high level terrorist and security of the realm issues being kept ‘secret’ if in the national security interest (few would object)… but I do object to being told by an English judge that I can’t read a celeb or MP story in England, where I live, but can do so simply by flicking onto a good Scots Law website or American website and read what the celebs / MPs want to suppress. English Law deserves better than that?…Surely? There are more important issues? Surely? I really do hope so.
I am, thankfully, a moderate atheist (apropos of other mumbo jumbery going on in our ‘wonderful’ world) – believe what you want to believe – but let us, at least, keep law for the really serious issues of our time and not the absurdities of celebrities and others who fuck up and want to protect their brand.
We really do need to get a grip on freedom now that that the internet is here. Yes… there are lots of loonies on the internet… but there are also a lot of sensible people on the net and on twitter… I think that most people can sort out the wheat from the chaff… and what are you so frightened of when you do fuck up?.. fucking up?.. or people finding out that you did? That is not what law is there to protect… there are higher values. Law needs to get back to protecting real values… Sorry…. but that is what I believe…and if I get turned over by people who don’t like this sentiment…so be it…
Best, as always… but I have a feeling it won’t be
Charon
PS.. I don’t have any money… I have a few assets… if you want a few unfinished Fuckerflies paintings and I did go to a Scottish public school (Not with Tony but there was a future Lord Chancellor at mine at the same time) so prison won’t be so bad…. Come on… we really need to get a grip on the core value of life and our law… don’t we deserve that?
Sir,
Thatcher.. Blair.. Blair.. Thatcher. That’ll be two grave top dances I’ll be doing down in hell one fine day.
Freedom for many a man went out of the windies underneath the both of those eejits. At least Thatcher only had the one face, not like Blair who surely has more faces than Big Ben itself.
Ahhhhh for the love of god, here was me determined never to speak on the subject of religion or politics in public again!
Damn you and your presents of decent Scottish single malt.
cheerio,
JB
Sir James
We believe in different ‘gods’ – but that is why we have so many lunches… how are you fixed for a lunch at Pentonville Prison… next week?
Sorry… had rather hoped for a better venue… but may well find your advice useful… as always….
Sadly… even you may have difficulty bringing a very amusing lap dancer in to Pentonville…
Best
C
Blair would indeed of used any excuse to join G W Bush in military action in Iraq. Did we actually need Blair to tell us that? Interesting that he has done so but it was obvious anyway.
The major problem is having a constitution which actually allows a Prime Minister to act like some medieval monarch and commit the country to a war of choice like Iraq. These so-called “Royal Prerogative” powers need massive reform. Sadly, the present government has fudged this issue.
Ministers are only too anxious to obtain power to shutdown anything which has the temerity to criticise them. Little doubt that the nodding dogs known as MPs will let clause 11 pass. That’s if they actually get a say. The executive controls most of the proceedings in Parliament anyway.
The developments in privacy law; defamation etc. have worrying features and it seems that it has been left to just a few judges to develop the law. It is hight time that Parliament showed greater interest in this.
Charon – the line about B. Liar not knowing the distinction between believing in God and playing God is immortal!
Consider yourself nominated for the Pulitzer Prize or something…