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An afternoon with Tony Martin

Our friend Sean Gabb is no stranger to radio or TV broadcasting. Indeed, so commonplace are his incisive contributions to both that Sean himself appears to regard them as somewhat mundane.

But yesterday was different. Yesterday, Sean travelled the studios of BBC Radio Oxford to take part in a phone-in debate on law and order. One of the other studio guests was none other than Tony Martin. As Sean himself says:

This is a case that has at times filled me and many other people with incandescent rage. It is the perfect summary of all that is wrong with modern England. Now, I was invited to meet the man at the centre of the case. Let alone driving – I might have walked the entire circuit of the M25 to be with him. So off I went.

If it is possible to be incandescent with envy then I am.

As is his custom, Sean has written about his afternoon with Tony Martin:

There is in any society an implied contract between state and citizen. We give up part of our right to self defence – only part, I emphasise – and all our right to act as judge in our own causes. We resign these matters to the state and obey its laws. In exchange, it maintains order more efficiently and more justly than we could ourselves. In modern England, the state has not broken this contract. If it had simply given up on maintaining order, that would be bad enough – but we could then at least shift for ourselves. No, the state in this country has varied the terms of the contract. It will not protect us, but it will not let us protect ourselves. If we ignore this command, we can expect to be punished at least as severely as the criminals who attack us. That is what the Tony Martin case is all about. This is not just a matter for the country. The towns have it just as bad, if not worse. If you are a victim of crime anywhere in this country, you are in it alone and undefended. Call for the Police, call for a home delivery pizza – see which arrives first.

Sean has a gift for commentary which few can emulate. This article, as with so many of his other writings, has all the solemn dignity and moving power of a hymn. His melancholy conclusions alone deserve the widest possible audience if only as a chronicle of these troubled times. Seldom has the phrase ‘read it and weep’ been quite so literal.

[Update: I think ‘whoops’ is the appropriate phrase. I drafted this and posted it up without realising that Brian was doing exactly the same thing only marginally sooner. But even duplication can be quite instructive as both Brian and I live up to our respective reputations of him being optimistic and me being pessimistic in response to precisely the same article.]

5 comments to An afternoon with Tony Martin

  • Well, David & Brian, it looks like you both posted pretty well simultaneously.

    And if you hadn’t, I was just about to.

  • David,

    I very much agree about the elegiac quality of Sean Gabb’s prose. It isn’t in the wording, which is rather plain and unambitious, so much as in his ability to transmit the impact of what he has seen and felt to his readers. A very fine article. But that isn’t the same as a very true article.

    I have been connected through business to livestock farming for over twenty years. The fragment of the old England that Mr Gabb so eloquently mourns is still a part of my daily life. Mr Gabb plainly apprehends the character of that England, it’s mature individuality and steadfast, natural conservatism. It isn’t all quite as passe as he thinks, though. Such deeply rooted qualities are the very devil to eradicate, and it will take a damn sight more than the Fearon factor to do it.

    In any case, the flow is in the other direction at the moment. Farmers are fine if they can make some profit. Livestock prices may only have been boosted by the fad of the Atkins Diet but the farmers at Thame will have had a bit of cash in their pockets for the first time in a decade. There may be fewer families in future on the land. But farming will survive in some form.

    So will the modern world in all its happy hour awfulness. The conflict between the two will outlive Blair’s government. Sean Gabb’s pessimism, though, might be a tougher challenge.

  • john

    tomorrow, i’m going out and buy a 40 cal p35, i can reach my 12 gauge or my ar 15 from my bed.
    i’m not crazy and i don’t dream of killing anyone but i’m not about to let some felon kill me
    armed in the usa

  • Alas, I wish I had known of this beforehand. I would have asked Mr. Gabb to convey to Mr. Martin the best wishes of an American admirer for a favorable outcome to his civil trial.

    Of course, the most favorable outcome not only would be a dismissal of the suit, but the incarceration of that appalling little bastard who brought the suit.

  • Dan

    Anyone know if there’s a civil defense fund for Mr. Martin? I think there are a lot of Americans who’d gladly give a credit card number if we had a website link to go to.