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In occasional moments of reflection, I sometimes wonder why the British government is wasting £5 million pounds of taxpayers’ money on the Hutton Inquiry, when we already know the result: the day the report is published, Geoff Hoon will resign.
But this begs another question. Who will Tony Blair replace the hopeless Defence Secretary with, when Hoon takes the Hutton bullet on behalf of the Dear Leader? With Tony rapidly running out of friends in Cabinet, who could the Teacher of the Nation possibly turn to in such a moment of crisis, especially when the locker is bare of mellifluous wormtongues, despite Tony having hundreds of overpaid New Labour backbenchers to choose from, most of whom spend their long dull mornings wandering around Westminster trying to secure free lunches?
Yes, you’ve already guessed it. No, you couldn’t possibly believe it. Yes, my friends, hold onto your bed-knobs and your broomsticks. For the next Secretary of State for Defence will be, yes, step forward please, the former Secretary of State for Transport, a man who made it through the rain, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the new and improved Stephen Byers!
Please. No tittering at the back there!
After having served more than an entire year on the backbenches, for having serially lied to the British people, rumours abound that Peter “Mandy” Mandelson has decided Stephen “Liar, Liar, my Pants are on Fire” Byers, must be returned to the ruling caste, as the new Defence Secretary, to bolster pretty-boy Tony’s rapidly disintegrating regime. If you can’t follow this link, here’s what today’s Daily Mirror said:
STEPHEN Byers is about to return to the Cabinet as replacement for doomed Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. Byers, 50, who quit as Transport Secretary 16 months ago in a storm over spin, will bolster support for Tony Blair at a time when Chancellor Gordon Brown’s backers are increasing in strength around the No10 table. Mr Hoon is widely expected to go after the Hutton inquiry over Dr David Kelly. Mr Byers has been exiled “long enough”, said a senior source.
Which leads one to think several things may have happened. First of all, Tony Blair has finally gone totally gaga mad. Unlikely, though possible. Second, the new unspun Tony has given up the ghost, and will go the same day Hoon does, handing over the multiplying problems of New Labour to Gordon Brown to fail with. Again, unlikely. Blair has nowhere yet to go, as he’s failed to get us into the €uro, and a daily fix of executive power is a drug few give up voluntarily. Third, Tony has created such a court of Yes-men, that he can no longer objectively discern reality from the sinuous platitudes of his courtiers. My bet is on this third option. It’s that Bay of Pigs scenario again, with Stephen Byers, in this case, being the pig.
Whatever the case, even the kite-flying suggestion that Stephen Byers is a solution to the problem of Geoff Hoon points to a government in mortal crisis, like the proverbial spider about to disappear down the spinning whirlpool of proverbial bathroom history. But with no trusted political opposition in the UK, and falling voting levels in all substantive elections, what happens when such a despised government does collapse? I don’t know, but start writing those libertarian manifestos right now. Our day may be closer than we think. Though I won’t be giving up the day-job, just yet.
Alas, the drinks really are starting to run out now, in the UK’s socialist Wonderland. As the world price of crude has started dropping, because the UK and US Coalition Allies have finally got the Iraqi oil pumps flowing again, instead of passing any resultant economic benefit onto the British people, the UK Chancellor Gordon Brown is about to pass this benefit onto himself by raising UK petrol prices by up to five pence per gallon. A splendid back-door tax effort, I think you’ll agree.
But one would’ve thought he’d learned his lesson during the UK Fuel Crisis, three years ago. However, our Gordon is wiser than we mere mortals. He thinks he can slip this tax rise in when the pump prices are dropping, thereby fooling we gullible British people into not noticing the difference ‘twixt cup and lip. But what happens, Gordon, when some unforeseen event pushes pump prices back up again? Will you reduce your tax-take? Or cut your spending? Or will you steel yourself for the UK Fuel Crisis Mark II?
I really don’t think you have a clue. Because, idiotarian though you are, you’re a highly intelligent man. And you know if you allowed this price cut to be passed onto the British private sector, instead of keeping it to pay for all your new lesbian nicotine-awareness counsellors, it would stimulate economic growth and increase your long-term tax-take. But you don’t care about the long-term tax-take, do you Gordon? When the British economy is heading over a waterfall, as you recently told the Cabinet, let’s just get that oar in the water and start paddling as hard and as fast as we can. The long-term future will just have to take care of itself.
And it will, Gordon. It will. Let’s just hope that you and your kind aren’t in it.
There are times (rare, it must be said) when I feel a pang of sympathy for our politicians.
Well, no, perhaps ‘sympathy’ is too strong a word. Let’s just say that I do occasionally recognise the thorniness of the predicaments in which they find themselves. Such as this one:
“We have quite a lot of evidence that illustrates that the council tax is very near the limit of acceptability in a number of areas,” said Mr Raynsford. “The increases in the last two or three years have really taxed the patience of a lot of people. They have been very substantial increases and we have to look at options for change including the possibility of finding other sources of revenue.”
Mr Raynsford’s remarks are evidence of Government concern that soaring council tax could severely damage Labour’s popularity in the run-up to the next general election.
The increases have led to threats of civil disobedience by pensioners in Devon who say they cannot afford the rises on their fixed incomes and are refusing to pay.
So what’s the problem? Just lower the taxes, right? Ah, well if only it was as easy as that. See the politicians realise that onerous taxes are making them unpopular but the only way to reduce that burden is to slash public spending and that will make them equally (if not more) unpopular. What’s a government minister to do?
Truly this is almost a picture perfect snapshot of a schitzoid nation. The common folk are always grumbling menacingly about the taxes they are forced to pay but at the same time they are not prepared to entertain even a suggestion of a reduction in the size of government (national or local) nor any diminution in the level of state largesse which they demand with an unquenchable vigour.
Oft-times this infected body politic breaks out in pustules that send the political classes scurrying around to find a less tender part of the body onto which to shift the burden. I suppose that method of treatment has a limited shelf-life.
It is slightly worrying that even after the Thatcher years there still seems to be no clear understanding that state activism comes at a high price. The British people appear to want low taxes and big government without appreciating that they cannot possibly have both. Until such time that sufficient numbers of them have settled on which one they want, these techtonic plates of expectation are going to continue grinding against each other, leading to frequent tremors and occasional quakes.
[Note to non-UK readers: ‘Council taxes’ are property-based taxes collected and spent at local level.]
Despite the most draconian anti-gun laws in the known universe, the British police are having to resort to enlisting the help of musicians in an attempt to curb gun crime:
The senior detective investigating the murder of Toni-Ann Byfield, the seven-year-old girl shot in the back, yesterday told Britain’s black music artists to warn their fans to stay away from guns.
At a summit with senior music industry figures, including Mercury Music Prize winner Dizzee Rascal and members of So Solid Crew, Detective Chief Superintendent John Coles, head of Operation Trident which investigates black-on-black gun crime, said it would help stop the shootings if rap musicians, DJs and producers spoke out against Britain’s escalating gun culture.
What’s all this nonsense about ‘escalating gun culture’? How can that be? Isn’t that something Americans are forced to endure but we Brits are mercifully free of?
Priceless.
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.]
There are many definitions of the Rule of Law, and I’m no lawyer, which may or may not be a good thing, but if freedom before the Rule of Law is to mean anything, surely it means only answering to well-defined pre-established law, rather than to the arbitrary and discretionary edicts of governments, particularly retrospective legislation where you get punished for something you did before it was made ‘illegal’.
Now I’m no card-carrying member of the Jeffrey Archer fan club, but when a government arbitrarily singles out just one man, even one as notorious as Lord Archer, and then ramrods through a piece of retrospective legislation deliberately designed to harm and humiliate just this one single individual, then if the Rule of Law was already on the critical injuries list, comatose in a life support unit, I think now is time to simply turn the ventilators off. What’s the point of keeping them on? The Rule of Law, in the UK, is dead.
Nurses, quickly please, the screens.
Over at Oxblog, Josh Chafetz has some surprising quotes of Gordon Brown on the subject of the EU. I nearly fell off my seat when I read this one:
First, Europe — both within the euro area and outside it — must reject old models that failed and embrace labor market flexibility combined with policies that equip people with the skills they need for work. Because just 5% of Americans out of work experience unemployment for more than a year — in contrast to 50% of Germany’s, 30% per cent in France, and 60% in Italy — we should reject any new directives that damage employment and growth.
I would perhaps not go so far as Josh and say this indicates the reality of the break of Labour with its past. Still… I cannot ignore a sign of economic sanity in early 21st century Britain.
One does need some hope.
It may be because I’m reading too much Rothbard, at the moment, but when you see the world through the tinted glare of Rothbardianism, even the tiniest stories acquire potentially ghoulish significance. One such story that caught my eye today, over a celebratory coffee espresso, was John Prescott’s decision to abolish polling booths for local elections, and introduce postal-only ballots.
No doubt once this has been hailed a great success in such paragons of civic virtue as Doncaster City Council, this policy will be transferred to General Elections and the much anticipated Euro referendum.
Again and again through Rothbard’s writings you find references along the lines of, “the state will try to acquire control of the roads, in order to march its forces to trouble spots more easily, it will try to acquire control of the schools, in order to more easily educate the public on the munificence of the state, and it will try to acquire control of the postal system, in order to more easily monitor and control its citizens’ communications”. Or possibly to get ‘Yes’ votes on Euro referendums, or to get vital councillors elected in hung councils, or to get marginal seat Labour MPs returned to Westminster?
No, surely I’m not accusing a clearly honest administration, like Mr Blair’s, of deliberately rigging elections via a state-owned postal system? Surely I wouldn’t even dare to suggest such a calumny? I wouldn’t put it past them for a second. These parasites, these useless feckless human beings, these politicians, I wouldn’t put a single corrupt thing past them, and if I was a politician in control of this country and I wanted to take full control of the ‘democratic’ process, for the long-term good of the people naturally, I would make all elections postal-vote only. And then get all my ‘democratic’ friends in MI5 to do the decent thing and fix all my election results for me. It’s nice work if you can get it. Just ask all those nice French people who made up the majority of those who voted ‘Yes’ in the skin-of-the-teeth Maastricht vote in the French 1992 referendum. If any of them actually exist, of course.
Democracy in the UK? It’s a holiday in Cambodia.
You’ve had a long, hard day. You want to go home to relax and unwind. You can hardly wait for that sweet moment when you place your key in the lock of your own front door. You make your way back to your car as it begins to rain. Your feet hurt. You’re getting wet. You want your comfy sofa and a hot meal and the TV and your warm bed. You finally reach the place where you parked your car only to find….disaster! It’s been clamped!
You stand there helplessly while the rain pitter-patters on your brow. Your blood begins to boil into toxic fumes of rage and frustration. You are stranded and alone, feeling victimised and vulnerable.
But, just at that moment, from out of the scudding, grey skies there swoops down a heroic figure of salvation to end your torment and set you free. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Angle-Grinder Man! → Continue reading: Desperately seeking heroes
After two years of investigation, Superintendent Ali Dizaei of Britain’s Metropolitan police has been acquitted at the Old Bailey of two minor charges of falsely claiming £200 pounds worth of travel expenses, and lying about where his car was when it was vandalized.
Yes, maybe it is the right thing to investigate alleged bent coppers, up to a reasonably sensible cut-off point, but so far this case has cost the British taxpayer up to £7 million pounds, has involved MI5 style surveillance involving legions of personnel, and has subjected Henley-on-Thames’s very own Mr Dizaei to levels of public humiliation which will almost certainly see him win massive compensation against the Met, should he file a claim against them. It seems reason has long since flown out of the police cell window.
And despite being found innocent, Mr Dizaei faces further disciplinary charges from his bosses, while still remaining suspended on a £52,000-a-year salary.
If I was a betting man I would say he’ll win a full £1 million settlement fee, if he does sue the Metropolitan police for harassment. So I don’t think we taxpayers will see much change out of the thick end of £10 million quid before this outrageous shambles is fully played out. But hell, what price the integrity of Britain’s premier police force?
Who needs the state’s policemen, anyway, to be out on the street apprehending criminals, when they could be up each others’ trouser legs hounding out offensive tattoos, hounding out speeding motorists from behind their desks, or hounding out innocent superintendents falsely accused of expense account fiddling. Money is no object, apparently, except of course when it comes to actually protecting the public against the appalling rising squalor of modern British life.
As I type, the American magician David Blaine is suspended in a perspex box above the River Thames in London in which state he intends to remain for a period of forty-four days with water but no food. For the life of me I cannot see what ‘magic’ is involved in this process but I will concede some moderate appreciation of his will to endure.
Rather less appreciate is the seemingly endless procession of London low-life who have taken it into their heads to try to sabotage him:
Protesters today tried to attack the cage holding illusionist David Blaine next to the Thames.
In a dramatic raid just before 5am a man scaled a scaffold support tower which is connected to Blaine’s perspex cage. Two accomplices had diverted security guards. The protester then tried to cut through the cable supplying water to the illusionist who is in the 10th day of his 44-day endurance challenge.
Excuse me, but protestors? What, precisely, are they supposed to be protesting about? Has David Blaine been oppressing the Palestinians? Did he invade Iraq? Has he contributed to starvation in Africa? Is he lining his pockets from ‘unfair trade’?
I submit that the term ‘anti-social thugs’ is far more accurate and appropriate.
There is an awful lot of this kind of thing appearing in the mainstream British press right now and I cannot help but wonder if it isn’t a faint echo of the ‘root causes’ mentality: the tendency to ameliorate malevolence by ascribing to its perpetrators the implication they are driven by some sort of legitimate grievance. Hence, their actions can be both explained and excused.
Whilst there stands no comparison whatsoever with Mr.Blaine’s bone-headed tormentors, I am quite convinced that if Adolf Hitler and his cronies were on the march today the press in this country would insist on referring to them as ‘German militants’. Likewise, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge would be described as ‘peace activists’.
The Telegraph reports that the French government has told an airline that it is not to ferry British troops to Basra. The ban is seen as reflecting Paris’s opposition to the occupation of Iraq.
Corsair, which has been chartered numerous times to transport UK forces around the world, pulled out of a contract to fly reinforcements to Basra at the weekend.
Transport ministry officials said yesterday that the move had nothing to do with safety but was a result of the intervention of the foreign ministry. The foreign ministry denied the report, saying there was “no political motive”. But British defence officials appeared to confirm that the ban was political and not technical.
A Corsair spokesman said most of the flights undertaken for the MoD took troops to training exercises. For security and insurance reasons they rarely flew to war zones.
We did fly to Pristina during the Kosovo crisis, but only once it had been cleared for civil aviation.
Basra is already open to civilian aircraft.
For once I have nothing to add to Instapundit’s commentary:
Hmm. Petty? Yes. Ineffectual? Yes. Infuriating and off-putting? Yes. Counterproductive? Yes. It’s got to be a product of the French Foreign Ministry.
Via Instapundit
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We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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