A modest proposal

[chickenfeet]

So Tony Blair has laid out the latest steps in his campaign to take the "law" bit out of "law and order". I suggest he doesn't go nearly far enough. I would suggest, as a minimum, that those suspected of trafficking in peerages, for example, should be banned from certain places, maybe the House of Commons, and should have their assets seized. After all, as we know the police just don't prosecute the people guilty (or presumed guilty) of these crimes because the namby pamby civil rights lobby insists on them being given a fair trial. I would also create a new class of Anti-Socialist Bastard Order which would make it an imprisonable offence for Labour cabinet ministers to talk out of therir rectal orificies and another category of Avaricious Spouse Banishment Order that would ban Cabinet ministers from forming domestic partnerships with anyone who makes more than twice the average industrial wage.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

It's straight back into the 18th century mindset. Next thing will be transportation for stealing a loaf (er... I don't think either Australia or the US will be very co-operative over that. Any spare space in Canada?)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

At least in the 18th century they had to have a trial and conviction first.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Am I deluded, or are these considerably more dictatorialthan anything found in the US or - perish the thought - my own neck of the woods?

I mean, Henry Porter - not exactly a rabid Leftie, what?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think they are quite extraordinary and would be unthinkable in the USA or Canada. They might go down quite well in Putin's Russia though.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking of areas further west and a good many decades earlier myself.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

At least Mussolini made the trains run on time

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

One even starts to think fondly about the castor oil.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

He really has gone round the bend, hasn't he? I used to have hopes that members of his Cabinet would step in ...

I miss Robin Cook.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's an odd world isn't it? I suppose that John Denham could kick up some sort of fuss from the Home Affairs Select Committee but the Cabinet now seems to be either as rabid as the PM or just plain toadies.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to grit my teeth and hope desperately for the Queen to think about the next lot of legislation.

[forthright.livejournal.com]

Where are the Liberal Democrats in all this? As the natural inheritors of the civil libertarian tradition in UK politics, shouldn't they be up in arms about all this?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

The LibDems will oppose but they carry about as much clout as the NDP normally does in Canada.

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

What I can't understand is how he doesn't notice - having had a full legal training - that reversing the burden of proof and reintroducing Star Chamber are not matters of minor tidying up.

I think the hypothesis that he's gone completely round the bend is the only possible one.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

The Cabinet and his close circle of advisord consists almost entirely of toadies. If one is constantly told that one is brilliant one comes to believe it. I suppose that is a form of madness.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I agree. It is scarey.

Even scarier is that I now agree with the Tories - who have said they would oppose all of Blair's latest ideas.