I watched a bit of TV last night. I wished I hadn't.
1. News item on the new film about pirate radio. On came fluffy old Uncle Tony Benn, to say that he was so please that. as Postmaster-General, he had suppressed the pirates, because it made the BBC so much better.
Bollocks! He couldn't stand media that weren't under his control. He, and his son, and his like, are still in command. More and more, it seems.
2. C4 documentary about a man who was turned into a non-person in what can only be described as a Kafkaesque way by HM Treasury. Because of unspecified reasons to believe that he was "or may be" involved in helping or financing terrorism, all his funds were frozen, he was unable to get a bank account, he required ministerial permission to spend more than £20 a week - even on a new pair of trainers! - and no-one else could give him any money without Treasury permission. The Treasury would not tell him anything about why they suspected this; there was no mechanism for questioning it; and when eventually (months later) they withdrew the status, it was with just a short letter. No more explanation is forthcoming, far less an apology or redress for ruining his life.
3. C4 survey on how patients are treated in NHS hospitals. Suffice it to say that Stafford was just one entry in the programme.
No. 2 alone has perhaps decided me to vote Tory in the next election, something which I genuinely believed that I would never do. Linking it with No. 1, I can see that it is not out of character for Labour, just not able to be implemented until the scares of recent years. I had already come to the conclusion that that last Labour Home Secretary that I didn't despise and fear was Roy Jenkins, now it is getting worse at an accelerating pace
Be afraid of this: you may think now that it will not happen to you, but recent history shows less and less time between the introduction of a draconian measure for anti-terrorism, and its widespread application to other minor purposes.
1. News item on the new film about pirate radio. On came fluffy old Uncle Tony Benn, to say that he was so please that. as Postmaster-General, he had suppressed the pirates, because it made the BBC so much better.
Bollocks! He couldn't stand media that weren't under his control. He, and his son, and his like, are still in command. More and more, it seems.
2. C4 documentary about a man who was turned into a non-person in what can only be described as a Kafkaesque way by HM Treasury. Because of unspecified reasons to believe that he was "or may be" involved in helping or financing terrorism, all his funds were frozen, he was unable to get a bank account, he required ministerial permission to spend more than £20 a week - even on a new pair of trainers! - and no-one else could give him any money without Treasury permission. The Treasury would not tell him anything about why they suspected this; there was no mechanism for questioning it; and when eventually (months later) they withdrew the status, it was with just a short letter. No more explanation is forthcoming, far less an apology or redress for ruining his life.
3. C4 survey on how patients are treated in NHS hospitals. Suffice it to say that Stafford was just one entry in the programme.
No. 2 alone has perhaps decided me to vote Tory in the next election, something which I genuinely believed that I would never do. Linking it with No. 1, I can see that it is not out of character for Labour, just not able to be implemented until the scares of recent years. I had already come to the conclusion that that last Labour Home Secretary that I didn't despise and fear was Roy Jenkins, now it is getting worse at an accelerating pace
Be afraid of this: you may think now that it will not happen to you, but recent history shows less and less time between the introduction of a draconian measure for anti-terrorism, and its widespread application to other minor purposes.
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