Ministry of Truth

I wonder; in all the fuss and furore over the current anti-terrorism bill, in every effort being made to scare and coerce parliament and the British people into supine compliance in the face of police demands for more and more powers, including the power to suspend habeas corpus […]

Looks very much like ‘honest’ John’s memory is starting to go. Fair’s fair, he has a point with his observation that: “It does point out the hypocrisy of what they said at the time: ‘purer than pure’, ‘whiter than white’, ‘tough on sleaze; tough on the causes of […]

This just arrived in my inbox at 5:30pm today. I am emailing you today to find out your views on the action the Government is proposing to take to challenge the new terrorist threats that face all of us. Since the London bombings of 7 July, we all […]

From this blogs search logs; one of antipodean cousins wants to know via Google Australia: “Why may electro-convulsion therapy be viewed with suspicion by public” To which the obvious answer must surely be: “Here, hold these wires and I’ll show you” On a similar amusing vein, this week […]

I think it fair to say that the government’s proposals to outlaw the ‘glorification’ of terrorism are as near dead in the water as makes no difference. The record will show that they won the division by a single vote, 300 to 299, a result which will have […]

Courtesy of The Current Outlook we have this perfect illustration; from the House of Lords; of the nature of debate on the introduction of ID Cards. Lord Thomas of Gresford: My Lords, a moment ago the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, said that it was not for lawyers or […]

The Times has published a set of sample questions that migrants will be asked on applying for British citizenship; together with the offical answers to the questions. Of course, the thing about really being British is that the actual answers will differ markedly from those the government thinks […]

Mention the name of Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean and most people will respond; who? If you’re a little more clued in you may have noticed that she has just been appointed by Blair as his special representative in talks for “memoranda of understanding”. In her hands lies […]

Neil’s back with another vain attempt to sell us an ID card or two, so… 1. ID cards are good in principle. NO2ID have no objections in principle to a ID card scheme, indeed they admit there are potential benefits to an ID scheme. Maybe they should change […]

If the old joke; “Q. How do you know when a politician is lying? A. His lips are moving