We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Executive action

The inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes today heard there were “chaotic” scenes in the police control room coordinating the pursuit that ended with him being shot dead.

A detective superintendent from special branch, identified only as Brian, said he was not even aware the Brazilian electrician had been identified as the failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The officer, who was in control of administrative tasks in the control room, said: “I was certainly aware that a male had been shot. The fact that he was unidentified, from what I could gather from the room, was how it felt at the moment.”

(Guardian)

Gordon Brown claims that the expropriation was necessary because Iceland planned to default on British Icesave accounts. […]

Brown’s response? To seize the UK assets, not of the bank that ran Icesave, but of a wholly unrelated bank, Kaupthing, thereby collapsing it. Icelanders, who had been expecting to negotiate a guarantee to British depositors – eventually agreed on Monday – were stunned. They couldn’t bring themselves to believe that the leader of a country they admired would destroy their last solvent bank simply to give himself what Labour MPs have since called “his Falklands moment”.

(Daniel Hannan, Times)

At least they shot de Menezes in the head. For a business whose bank has been terminated on executive orders, the experience is rather like how I imagine it feels to drown in your own blood.

Of course if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. The government is benevolent, and always acts in the best interests of everyone. Foreigners are a threat. We must remember that. The government says so. So it must be true.

7 comments to Executive action

  • Robert

    Yeah, and look at the comments on that Indy piece you linked to. Doesn’t take long for ten commenters to start blaming the… oh, go on, guess…

  • guy herbert

    I’m sure the Samizdata comments would be full of such things if there were not a sophisticated nut-trap. We still get a bit of conspiracy theory, though it tends to be of the less transparent sort.

    I note that HMG with its “British jobs for British people”, “ID cards for foreigners”, “strong borders” against terrorists, etc, etc, rhetoric plays up to precisely that sensibility.

  • Yeah, it’s his Falklands moment.

    Trouble is, he’s Galtieri.

  • Steve P

    Nick M:
    More like the Belgrano.

  • James Waterton

    Steve – haha!

  • My favourite comment on this was on some blog or another and ran along the lines of,

    `What are they complaining about? They’re from South America, they should be used to Police Death Squads.’

    Our Government have given the Police licence to kill. Get used to it.

  • Paul Marks

    A nice (in the old sense) post Guy.

    Good to see someone is keeping their head.

    I am too much in a rage to write calmly these days – as J.P. just found out.