Having now seen the coaliton agreement, I can say that I can broadly support this government and am convinced that it will be an improvement on the bunch of authoritarian war criminals who have been replaced.
Here are the parts of the agreement that to me constitute a radical change for the better in the political possibilities for our country:
Civil Liberties
Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database.
Outlaw the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
Extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
Adopt the Scottish approach to stopping retention of innocent people’s DNA on the DNA database.
Defend trial by jury.
Restore rights to non-violent protest.
A review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
Further regulation of CCTV.
Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
End the detention of children for immigration purposes.
Add to that a fully elected House of Lords under PR, and fixed term parliaments, and this does represent real truly important change for the better.
The full coalition agreement is here.
Lifting the basic tax allowance towards £10,000 and restoring the state pension link to earnings are also major changes.
Terry at May 12, 2010 10:42 PM
The Labout Party re-build is long overdue. Surely not a good idea that they could be in government simultaneously.
I couldn’t give a damn about any particular party unless it commits war crimes. The Conservative MP’s were lied to just as the electorate were.
Your party has brought shame on this country and the sooner (I wish) the new regime give us a judicial inquiry on Iraq, the better.
Terry,
Is it not strange, then, that not one of those anti-war Labour MPs you talk about is a credible candidate in the Labour leadership election?
How do you explain that?
At least nobody can accuse Craig of not being flexible when it comes to his support. A week ago he was arguing passionately not to be a partner of the Tories, now that the details are there, a road to Damascus conversion is now completed. I suppose facts rather than supposition can do that to a person.
Anything at all that makes the state less authoritarian is to be welcomed, but where is the much needed reform of the police? Disbanding the private sector ACPO would be a start, as would clamping down on access/sale of data to third parties.
tech
It’s remarkably easy to hijack democracy in Britain, mainly because democracy has never existed, other than for a period between 1945 and the late 1970s.
The Labour party was hijacked by neocons in its weakest moment.
But still 139 Labour MPs voted against the Iraq war, the largest rebellion in Labour history.
The point really is not to throw the baby out with the filthy neocon bathwater.
Suhayl, that I can predict that that hacker will not go to Gitmo does not make me a neoconservative. Every single member of the ACLU would agree with me.
Craig
They had a habit of dying of heart attacks at propitious moments for the neocon agenda.
John Smith. Robin Cook.
But still there’s something to build upon in the Labour movement, whereas there isn’t in your new friend the Conservative party.
“But still there’s something to build upon in the Labour movement, whereas there isn’t in your new friend the Conservative party.”
No prejudice there then… eh, Terry.
ScouseBilly
It’s not a matter of prejudice. It’s a matter of looking at the facts.
139 Labour MPs rebelled. 15 Tories rebelled.
139 is more than 15.
Craig is hoping the 15 are more than the 139, the largest rebellion in Labour history.
Terry, the dossier came from where? Have you not read Craig’s book?
Do you have any idea how Whitehall was perverted by Nu-Lab criminals?
Have you no idea, how that led to the surveillance state?
“Whenever justice is uncertain and police spying and terror are at work, human beings fall into isolation, which, of course, is the aim and purpose of the dictator state, since it is based on the greatest possible accumulation of depotentiated social units.”
– Carl Gustav Jung, The Undiscovered Self (1957).
wendy
You are correct. Every eventuality is planned for. They started to talk as soon as they knew there was a chance of a hung parliament.
As you said.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LE05Ak02.html
Lets Face It
We Need a Cull of The MANAGEMENT
The Old Useless Farts
Despite Rumours To The Contrary
Our Kids Are a Lot Brighter Than Us
So now is the Time To RESIGN
Leave Your Job (Once You Have Trained a Good Replacement)
And Give
Your Kids a Chance
They Can Do It
There is a Life After Retirement
Ten Years Ago when I was working My Bollocks Off
I Looked Ten Years Older Than I Do Now
So I reckon I have saved 30 years by retiring
Some people actually think I am about 35
My hair is dyed, but I have inherited my Beautiful Mother’s Skin
I use no cream at all
Tony
Tony, don’t you think we have a duty to let the young know it’s ok to be an individual, to think for yourself, never to accept without understanding and checking for ourselves?
My nephew is 10, the brightest in his new school. He asked me how CO2 could lead to warming when it’s only 380 ppm by volume. I sent him this about the “hot water bottle effect”:
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=1562&linkbox=true&position=4
scousebilly
I have no problem with your or Craig’s attack on the NuLab neocon leadership under Blair. I’ve done it myself.
I despise them!
I’m just saying that 139 Labour MPs voted against Tony’s war and only 15 Conservative MPs did.
The Conservatives as a party are more in tune with the neocon agenda, quite naturally. It comes from their imperialist mindset.
I’m pointing out that that is not natural to the Labour party rank and file. They fought against it as best they might, not just in parliament, but on the streets, in the workplaces, in blogs, in media, wherever they could.
If you want to attack the Labour movement, attack them for ever allowing the Blairite neocons to take control.
But attacking the whole Labour party and movement for the crimes of Blair and associates is not just stupid, it’s downright dishonest and immoral, especially when you’re now allying yourselves with a more openly neocon Conservative party.
Craig – I have to agree with Terry here – if you’ve got that grudge against the entire Labour party, when the majority of Labour party members opposed the Iraq war – and over 100 Labour MPs voted against it – but you have no similar grudge against the Conservatives, when most of their membership were enthusiastically for it and only 15 Conservative MPs voted against it – you’re being biased and irrational. No other explanation for it.
The vast majority of Conservative MPs in the new government voted for the Iraq war, with enthusiasm.
and i’m saying that as someone who left the Labour party even before the Iraq war over PFIs and PPPs and public subsidies for privatised rail companies – and the party leadership’s backing for sanctions and bombing which mostly just killed ordinary Iraqis
ScouseBilly,
Despite that both their Mum and Dad were brought up as Staunch Roman Catholics…
We didn’t get our kids Baptised because we knew they had no original sin…
So there was no evil to wash away
And so we didn’t program with any Religion
They both came top of their class in Religious Studies
And think it is a load of bollocks
But with Global Warming
The Indoctrination has been so severe, that when She went ski-ing over Easter
It was so cold that she had to buy even more protective clothing than she had brought on the bus with her mates from the Global Warming Slush Fund Supported University
She had to Pay That Herself
But has now got a Part Time job with a Sports Company…
And worked her bollocks off for a month
And got paid £80
She is Slowly Learning The Lessons of Life From Experiencing It
Tony
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear” – Bertrand Russell
‘and importantly despite what the libdems believe it is cameron and his cronies who will pull the strings’
Once again you are correct. Events since have proved that.
tony_opmoc at May 12, 2010 11:37 PM
They sound well equipped for life.
I’m sorry for those without imagination, and humour; the unwitting eco-pc-smokefree-jugend, if you will – poor bastards.
and don’t get me started on the politicisation of the police, medical profession etc.
“Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes” – Murray Edelman.
ScouseBilly
Thanks
Do you realise how difficult it is to get a job if you are a teenager – and have got no contacts who can help you get a job?
Do you understand the importance of having a job when you are a teenager – and earning your own money…
Most of my Daughter’s Friends who went to the Posh Single Sex Grammar School….
Didn’t get their first job until….and some of them still haven’t…
Some of Their Elder Sisters are 25 years old and they have never been paid for work in their lives….
Even if they have a Top Class Degree
And My Kids got Their Jobs Completely Under Their Own Inititaive with Nothing But Encouragement From Their Mum and Dad
She probably got the sports job cos she knew a lot about some of their equipment
Like she could spin some of the departments inside out
Cos she had already used their kit and done it
Both our Children, Like Their Mum and Dad went to Ordinary Schools Where There Were Boys and Girls In The Same Class.
Tony
Terry at May 12, 2010 11:28 PM
You are asking that the Labour movement in general may be excused for their part in our fall from grace.
I think the civilised thing to do is now to have a post-mortem within the party, examine your collective and individual conscience and remove the elements involved in that evil deceit – then and since. Until then nobody should again put their faith in the Labour party. I felt that bad in 2003 and still do. It made me ashamed of my country, and that hurts.
In the meantime the country needs to deal with the pressing issue of our horrendous deficit and pray that we keep our flattering AAA rating.
ok?
Pachyderm in the parlour: Trident, Trident, Trident.
AKA The great, useless, money-waster
we need to reduce the deficit without sacking so many public sector workers that we cause a tip back into a worse recession though – definitely don’t trust the conservatives on that one – and it looks like the smarter Lib Dems, like Vince Cable, are pretty much being side-lined
Yes, Tony I do.
I hope that the £10k tax allowance will create jobs – even if, in the case of kids, they still live at home and may only be doing part-time. At least they’ll have some pride in themselves and will be able to afford a few of life’s pleasures.
It’s going to be hard all round for the next ? years. I’m glad yours are doing well.
If we get out of recession we have a chance of paying off the debt – if we go back into it the debt will continue to grow because our government revenues will dwindle
scousebilly
“In the meantime the country needs to deal with the pressing issue of our horrendous deficit and pray that we keep our flattering AAA rating.”
by joining up with an open and obvious neocon party like the Conservatives, eh?
A neocon party who are currently planning war on Iran.
You’re either a Lib Dem who doesn’t do irony, or a Conservative who’s delighted to have sucked them in.
I suspect the latter.
We don’t do protests any more, but on Monday afternoon, we did cycle to our local council on the other side of our village…
On our Bicycles
To Deliver Our Own Personal Protest
We just walked up to the door
and it opened…
We delivered our letter to the receptionist,by hand after waiting ages for her to turn up (there was no security whatsoever)
And if it had been a hell of a lot warmer, we might have done the whole thing nude
Like we have a history of in the Greek Islands and the Caribbean (only the Cuban Bit – its a different island)
But the principle is the same
Tony
10k tax allowance is a good idea – and we really can’t afford to upgrade Trident
‘and it looks like the smarter Lib Dems, like Vince Cable, are pretty much being side-lined’
Cable has been put into a hallway cupboard and the door locked.
“You’re either a Lib Dem who doesn’t do irony, or a Conservative who’s delighted to have sucked them in.
I suspect the latter.”
That’s a good one, Terry.
And I suspect it’s because I don’t agree with you.
Anyway, I’m discussing what has actually happened not what might/may/could under an untested coalition.
I didn’t want to invoke Godwin but the denial is akin to the German people not so long ago – after all the crime was the same one.
Here’s another good one:
“The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected.”
Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007.