Samizdata

No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
– The Magna Carta (1215)

They ask why we don’t get rid of Mugabe, why not the Burmese lot? Yes, let’s get rid of them all. I don’t because I can’t, but when you can, you should.
– Tony Blair in Sir Peter Stothard’s book about Downing Street during the war

The Conservative Party wishes to liberate both our society and the individuals within it from the all-encompassing claims of a State that is still believed by some to be able to reap miracles.
– Oliver Letwin MP, seen by many as the chief architect of future Conservative Party policy

Sometimes, late at night when the cheese and port have hit the table and conversation has taken a lubricated turn toward the candid, the odd dinner guest at the Billabong is sometimes heard to remark that the Professor is a paranoid troglodyte who sees conspiracies where none exist. These remarks seldom surprise since, sadly, we live in a society that insists, and does so despite all evidence to the contrary, that intrusive government and its stickybeak agents are forces for the common good. Well, everyone is entitled to an opinion, so the Professor merely smiles, denies the charge, offers another glass of sauterne — and makes a mental note to write an anonymous letter to the Australian Taxation Office suggesting that his critical guest be ruthlessly investigated for dodging taxes. True, that prescription is a harsh antidote to innocence, but after the tax man has probed every nook and cranny of a blameless citizen’s financial affairs, the light bulb generally goes on. Government, they suddenly realise, ain’t their friend, not by any stretch of the imagination.

— mysterious but always enjoyable Australian blogger Professor Bunyip. He’s quite right, but if he writes an anonymous letter to the tax office suggesting I be investigated, he ain’t my friend by any stretch of the imagination either.

(Link via Scott Wickstein).

The visibility of accidents has gone up due to the mushrooming of TV news channels and that’s causing all the worry.
– M.Y. Siddiqui, India’s Railway Ministry spokesman when asked about mounting public anger over the safety record of India’s antiquated rail network, after accidents killed nearly 300 people in the last 12 months

We can’t change the way that newspapers are written but we can sure change the way people read them.
– Perry de Havilland